Muju-gun Receives Praise for Reasonable Prices
Gangneung Dano Festival Potato Pancakes and Danoju Each 6000 Won
From the 2nd to the 6th of last month, the "Muju Mountain Village Film Festival" without price gouging was held at Jinam Park in Muju-eup, Muju-gun, Jeonbuk. Amid ongoing controversies over "price gouging" at local festivals across the country, Muju-gun's festival, which promoted reasonable prices, has received belated attention.
Starting this year, Muju-gun set a policy to eradicate price gouging and controlled food prices at the festival site. Last month, a public contest was held for operating snack booths at the film festival targeting local restaurants, with a condition from the application stage that food prices must be set below 10,000 won. Beverage and alcohol prices were also required to be uniform across all participating vendors.
A broadcast screen that caused controversy for charging 70,000 won for a single bag of old-fashioned snacks. [Photo by KBS2]
The seven finally selected vendors offered about 30 menu items including samgyeopsal (pork belly), handmade sausages, gimbap, and tteokbokki. Samgyeopsal and bean sprouts served on a 26cm diameter plate were priced at 10,000 won, and a set menu with a 20cm handmade sausage plus vegetables and bread was 3,000 won. Fish cake skewers were 1,000 won each, matching the national average market price.
In addition, Muju-gun started using reusable containers this year to reduce disposable products. At this year’s festival, the amount of waste, which was about 10 tons per day last year, was reduced by half.
Hwang In-hong, the mayor of Muju-gun, said, "It was even more meaningful that after the festival, participating vendors voluntarily donated 500,000 won each as scholarships," and added, "We will also ensure that there are no complaints about food at the Firefly Festival to be held in September."
At the Jeonnam Hampyeong Butterfly Festival held last month, controversy arose over charging 10,000 won for a bowl of fish cake, and at the Gyeongbuk Yeongyang-gun Wild Vegetable Festival, a vendor was shown on broadcast selling a 1.5kg bag of traditional snacks for 70,000 won, sparking complaints that the snacks were "more expensive than beef," leading Yeongyang-gun to issue a public apology.
Additionally, at the Gyeongnam "Jinhae Gunhangje" and Jeonbuk Namwon "Chunhyangje," pork dishes were priced at 40,000 won per plate and pajeon (green onion pancake) at 20,000 won each, drawing criticism on social media.
As controversies over price gouging at domestic festivals continue, local areas are on alert. The organizers of the "Gangneung Danoje," scheduled from the 18th to the 25th, agreed with resident merchants to charge 12,000 won for two potato pancakes and 6,000 won per bottle of the representative Makgeolli "Danoju." Prices for snacks such as fish cake and tteokbokki will be publicly posted.
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