‘Yeongdeok Daegae Festival’ Takes Off! ... Samsa Marine Park Attracts Over 60,000 Visitors

The ‘Yeongdeok Snow Crab Festival’ has awakened from a four-year slumber, proving its resilience as a representative festival of South Korea.

During the three-day main event held at Samsa Marine Park starting from the 24th, the festival was filled with lively crowds throughout the period, and the area around Ganggu Port and Ganggu Snow Crab Street was packed with visitors with barely any space to step.

Yeongdeok Snow Crab Festival Held for the First Time in 4 Years.

After the heartbreak of last year’s cancellation just before the event due to cold waves and strong winds, this year’s Yeongdeok Snow Crab Festival, despite a short preparation period, was newly revamped and successfully attracted the enthusiastic response of participants, drawing in over 60,000 tourists.

The traffic volume entering Ganggu Port during the weekend more than doubled compared to usual years, dispelling concerns that changing the festival venue from the original Haeparang Park to Samsa Marine Park would negatively impact the local economy.

The festival’s opening ceremony, the Safety Prayer Ritual at Chayu Village (the Original Snow Crab Village, Gyeongjeong 2-ri), introduced a fresh change.

Breaking away from a simple ritual format, a high-quality traditional performance and a Byeolsingut (a shamanistic ritual) filled with witty storytelling captivated the audience visiting the event, offering hundreds of trekking tourists on the Blue Road a refreshing breeze of enjoyment.

At the nearby Gyeongjeong 2-ri, the Livestock Street Seafood Party showcased the potential of a new village festival with a variety of food and entertainment. Based on the interaction between youth and villagers, this event revitalized the stagnant area and effectively promoted the region.

One of the highlights of the festival, the Ganggu Snow Crab Street Parade, also left a deep impression. Leading the parade was a giant doll characterizing Yeongdeok Snow Crab called ‘Deok-i Captain,’ followed by over 300 local residents including a pungmul (traditional percussion) troupe, creating a spectacular scene that became a symbol of the festival.

Especially at the final destination, the percussion performance by the pungmul troupes from nine towns and townships gathered together was a special experience that conveyed a message of harmony to the local community.

At the main festival site, Samsa Marine Park, a rare sight also attracted attention. The transparent giant air dome, measuring 25 meters in diameter, was a spectacle in itself, but it also provided a space where visitors could enjoy the snow crab and various foods with their families without worrying about the chilly February weather.

This unique air dome, which allowed visitors to fully enjoy the festival atmosphere indoors, left a strong impression on attendees and received the greatest acclaim during the festival period.

The Yeongdeok town and township food booths, staffed by local residents, gained popularity by moving away from the traditional Mongolian tents and setting up container booths that reflected the festival’s concept.

All participating towns and townships offered dishes using Yeongdeok Snow Crab, such as snow crab meat rice balls and snow crab pancakes. The clean and sophisticated facilities and snow crab-based foods were enough to stimulate visitors’ appetites, resulting in high sales.

The signature programs of the Yeongdeok Snow Crab Festival?snow crab fishing, snow crab running, and snow crab auction?were also extremely popular, with applicants lining up for long periods. The freshly steamed snow crabs right next to the event site caught visitors’ eyes, and the impromptu performances interacting with participants greatly enhanced the immersion of the experience programs.

Snow crab fishing.

Competitive programs among local town and township residents, such as snow crab mask soccer, snow crab tug-of-war, and the festival song flash mob performance, also provided more fun than expected, earning high marks from visitors. Along with the snow crab street parade and town and township food booths, these resident participation programs firmly established themselves as the core of the festival and were selected by the festival organizing committee as the greatest achievement of this year’s event.

With safety management emerging as the top priority, the Yeongdeok Snow Crab Festival established an active cooperation system by involving related organizations and groups to ensure the event was conducted safely.

The Yeongdeok Police Station and Yeongdeok Fire Station deployed 160 and 52 personnel respectively at the festival site and along the national highway, and the Federation of Model Drivers also provided significant assistance in traffic management based on their extensive experience.

Park Osu, chairman of the Yeongdeok Snow Crab Festival Organizing Committee, said, “We feel immense satisfaction and pride in successfully concluding the first offline festival in four years. Based on the experience gained from this festival, we will do our utmost to welcome tourists with an even more developed festival next year.”

County Governor Kim Kwang-yeol stated, “I want to give the MVP to the tourists who traveled a long way to visit Yeongdeok and to the residents who spared no support and interest for the successful hosting and operation of the festival. Yeongdeok, full of sights and foods all year round, asks for your continued interest and love.”