Expect debilitating traffic jams and crammed subways as hordes of joyous, beer-guzzling, gimbap eating, DSLR-toting visitors hit the streets of Seoul this Saturday for the city's most explosive festival of the year.

"It's Seoul's biggest event," says Hee-jae Kim, an operations representative for the annual Seoul International Fireworks Festival, now in its 11th year.

"To have more than one million people turn out to one spot, for that one event on one day ... there isn't anything like it in terms of scale."

Seoul's 11th annual fireworks festival will take place on Saturday, October 5, starting at 7 p.m. These images taken at last year's festival offer a preview of what visitors can expect.

Set in Yeouido, one of the city's business and media epicenters, the fireworks festival takes place in front of the 63 Building, event sponsor Hanwha Corporation's iconic skyscraper overlooking the Han River.

In addition to showcases by Korean fireworks designers, teams from Canada, Japan and France will blast their own award-winning creations into the night.

Canada's Apogee Fireworks will showcase its "Skyfall" display while Japan's Tamaya Kitahara Fireworks team plans to shoot a Japanese garden into the sky. The French team, Ruggieri, will set their streaming lights show to opera music.

Seoul International Fireworks Festival 2013
Saturday October 5, 7-9 p.m
Yeouido Hangang Park (near by 63 Building), Yeouido-dong 8, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul
Public transport: Yeouido Station on subway lines 5 and 9; airport bus 6030

(Source: CNN)