May 16-18: Sixty Million Blossoms Including Poppies
Family Garden Creation Experience and Ulsan National Photography Contest to Be Held
The city of Ulsan will host the '2025 Taehwagang National Garden Spring Flower Festival' from May 16 to May 18, 2025, at Taehwagang National Garden.
This year's festival, held under the theme 'Spring Garden, Let's Go See the Flowers,' is intended to wish for the successful hosting of the '2028 Ulsan International Garden Expo.' Covering an area of 28,000 square meters, the festival will welcome visitors with 60 million flowers from five species, including poppies, peonies, cornflowers, baby's breath, and California poppies.
The naturalistic garden created by Piet Oudolf, now in its third year, will also showcase its beautiful flowers.
The festival will begin on May 16 at 6:30 p.m. with a pre-event performance, 'Spring Waltz Dance,' to create a garden party atmosphere.
The opening ceremony will take place at 7:00 p.m. on the special stage at Willow Lawn, featuring a spring flower seedling watering performance and a congratulatory performance by singer Shin Sung, themed around spring flowers.
Among the main programs, this year's special event is the 'Family Garden Creation Experience.' Families, couples, and other teams will have the opportunity to create their own gardens by planting garden plants themselves at the national garden.
This experience program will be held twice daily (at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.) on both May 17 and May 18, with 80 teams accepted on a first-come, first-served basis through online registration on the city’s website and other platforms.
To broadly promote the value of Taehwagang National Garden and to vitalize garden culture, various children's and family experience programs will be held, including a New Gardener Contest, Happy Gardener, and Little Gardener.
Especially this year, the festival will showcase spring flowers of Taehwagang National Garden and Simnidaebat Bamboo Grove as a backdrop, with performances such as Ulsan Crane Dance, ballet, and a demonstration of Ulsan’s iconic Cheoyong mask-making. With support from the Korea Photographers Association, the Ulsan National Photography Contest will also be held to promote Taehwagang National Garden nationwide.
In addition, large floral sculptures will be installed at the main entrances of the information center and Meeting Plaza, and a photo zone featuring the International Garden Expo image (E.I) will be set up to promote the 2028 Ulsan International Garden Expo in advance.
In cooperation with the Korea Forest Service, a mobile plant clinic will be operated to diagnose and treat household companion plants.
At the 'Garden Experience Booth' set up in Picnic Yard, various experience programs (Play Garden) such as woodworking, companion tree adoption, and bouquet making will be available, along with food experience programs (Kitchen Garden) using herbs grown in the urban agriculture vegetable garden. These diverse garden exhibitions and experiences will be offered from May 16 to May 18.
During the festival, events at Willow Lawn will include a children's puppet show based on 'The Wizard of Oz' and a children's magic show. For the 7080 generation, nostalgic performances such as 'Guitar and Spring' (on the 17th) and a youth dance performance (on the 18th) will be presented, offering programs for all age groups.
Other events will include a poetry exhibition at Taehwagang National Garden, a wildflower bonsai exhibition featuring native wildflowers of Taehwagang, a flea market, a photo zone for life snapshots with spring flowers as the backdrop, and a moving camera experience.
At night, for visitor convenience, the area around the flower garden will be illuminated from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. with a spring flower tower, colorful arch-shaped floral sculptures, and night string lights along the zelkova tree path.
A city official stated, "Through this spring flower festival, we hope to successfully host the 2028 Ulsan International Garden Expo, enhance Ulsan's image as a garden city, and establish Taehwagang National Garden as a beloved healing destination that provides visitors with relaxation and comfort."
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