On January 16, Gyeongbuk Province held a Regional Festival Review Committee meeting and selected 14 designated festivals and 6 Miso Festivals to represent Gyeongbuk in 2026 and 2027. The province will support content development and festival operations for two years to discover competitive festival content and strengthen the foundation for sustainable festival management.
The committee selected two top festivals, six excellent festivals, and six promising festivals by category. The Gumi Ramen Festival (November 6-8) and the Gimcheon Gimbap Festival (October 23-25) were chosen as the top festivals.
The Gumi Ramen Festival, the only urban ramen festival in Korea, received high marks for increasing visitor participation through cooking, creative, and experiential content. The festival is designed so that visitors can experience a variety of unique ramen from different regions in one place, which has effectively boosted urban visits and local consumption.
The Gimcheon Gimbap Festival was highly rated for showcasing unique gimbap from across the country and gimbap content that highlights local characteristics in one venue. Through interactive content such as gimbap-making experiences and curation programs, the festival fosters intergenerational empathy and, by linking with cultural spaces, has simultaneously increased visitor satisfaction and the festival’s potential for expansion.
The excellent festivals selected were the Pohang International Fireworks Festival (November 20-22), Yeongcheon Bohyeonsan Starlight Festival (in October), Cheongsong Apple Festival (October 28-November 1), Yeongyang Wild Greens Festival (May 7-10), Yeongdeok Snow Crab Festival (March 26-29), and Cheongdo Persimmon Festival (in October).
The promising festivals included the Yeongju Korean Confucian Culture Festival (May 2-5), Goryeong Daegaya Festival (March 27-29), Seongju Melon & Life Culture Festival (May 14-17), Bonghwa Sweetfish Festival (July 25-August 2), Uljin Jukbyeon Port Seafood Festival (in November), and Ulleung Squid Festival (in July).
To discover and nurture competitive small-scale festivals based on content that reflects local characteristics, the committee designated the following as Miso Festivals: Yeongju Museom Wooden Bridge Festival (in October), Sangju Slow Life Festival (September 12-13), Gyeongsan Gatbawi Wish Fulfillment Festival (in September-October), Cheongsong White Porcelain Festival (September 11-13), Seongju Gayasan Golden Fields Festival (in October), and Chilgok Honey Beer Festival (July 11-12).
Gyeongbuk Province plans to use the designated and Miso Festivals selected this time as a basis to set the direction for regional festival policy. The province will seek to expand tourism, culture, and experiential content linked to regional festivals in line with tourism trends, and will explore ways to promote inter-county cooperation.
Park Chanwoo, Director of Culture, Tourism and Sports of Gyeongbuk Province, stated, "Now, we will move beyond simple visit-type festivals and actively support strengthening content competitiveness and operational excellence so that festivals become destinations people want to stay at and revisit. In addition, by forming alliances among regional festivals, we will broaden the scope of our festivals and help them grow from Korea’s representative festivals into global ones."
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