"Cook Like This" ... Changwon Special City Hosts the 8th Changwon Food Culture Festival

Tastego, Enjoygo, Gogo to Changwon

Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam successfully held the "8th Changwon Food Culture Festival" at Yongji Cultural Park.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Song Jong-gu] Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam successfully held the “8th Changwon Food Culture Festival” on the 19th at Yongji Culture Park to promote the diversity and excellence of Changwon’s food culture.

The Changwon Food Culture Festival is hosted by Changwon City and organized by the Changwon Food Culture Festival Promotion Committee. It widely showcased the diversity and excellence of Changwon’s food culture through nationwide cooking and cake & dessert competitions, a food culture planning exhibition hall (featuring works from Changwon Master Cooking School, food from the food-specialized street, confectionery, bakery, rice cake works, and student works), a cooking competition exhibition hall, experience and promotion booths, and food manufacturing company promotion and sales booths.

In particular, this festival presented various attractions to citizens by incorporating AI serving robots and drone filming, reflecting the trends of the 4th Industrial Revolution era, and through a performance of the representative Changwon dish, mideodeok bibimbap. It also actively participated in reducing disposable products by offering tastings using ice cream cones.

The cooking competition, prepared to develop representative Changwon dishes and dining products, featured 20 teams who passed the preliminary round competing. Nine teams received certificates and prize money, including awards from the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Commissioner of the Food Safety Ministry, for developing original and marketable dishes using Changwon specialties.

The city attracted many citizens’ enthusiastic responses by recruiting applicants in advance for popular activities such as cake making with family, kimchi making, persimmon chili paste making, sandwich making, and hand-drip coffee experiences.

Additionally, diverse cooking experiences such as North Korean food tasting, multicultural food tasting, and tasting and sharing events of Changwon’s representative seafood, the pipi clam, were provided. Special experiences including nail art, face painting, live commerce, and AI robot experiences were also arranged to offer entertainment to citizens.

The city provided visitors to the festival with bags, reusable containers, and forks to promote food culture improvement, allowing their use at sales and tasting booths to reduce disposable products and promote an eco-friendly festival. To ensure citizens could safely enjoy the festival, thorough safety management was implemented, including pre-inspection of facilities and strengthening safety personnel at each booth.

Hong Nam-pyo, Mayor of Changwon Special City, said, “The 8th Changwon Food Culture Festival seems to have created a place where citizens, who have had a hard time due to COVID-19 and economic downturn, can experience and enjoy various activities. We will continue to strive to revitalize the food culture festival to widely promote Changwon’s food culture and do our best to build diverse cultural contents and tourism infrastructure to make Changwon a tourist city where people want to stay.”