Home › Festivals › Gwangju Kimchi Festival
Gwangju Kimchi Festival 2026
- 📅 Dates
- Oct 23, 2026 – Oct 25, 2026
- 📍 Location
- 111 Naebang-ro, Seo-gu, Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City
- 🎫 Admission
- Free
- 🕘 Hours
- 10:00-20:00
- 🎪 Venue
- Sangmu Citizens Park
- 🏛️ Organizer
- Gwangju Kimchi Festival Organizing Committee · Gwangju-si
- ☎️ Contact
- +82-62-613-3955
Overview
*The information below is based on the 2025 festivals. Details for the 2026 festivals will be updated as they become available.*The Gwangju Kimchi Festival is Korea’s representative kimchi festival, offering a variety of kimchi products for purchase and the chance to taste various kimchi dishes. Highlights include the “Thousand People’s Table” featuring diverse kimchi cuisine, a competition to discover kimchi masters, and a kimchi experience school with a range of engaging programs.
Source: Korea Tourism Organization (official English translation, TourAPI).
What happens at Gwangju Kimchi Festival
- Kimchi Making Experience
- Thousand People’s Table (Food Court)
- Gwangju Kimchi Star Chef Food Show
- Cultural Performances
- Kimchi Exhibition
- Etc.
Official programme as registered with the Korea Tourism Organization. Details can change — check with the organizer before you go.
🇰🇷 Copy this into Naver Map or Kakao Map
Google Maps cannot give walking or transit directions inside Korea — Korean law restricts map-data export. Naver Map and Kakao Map can, but they find far more when you search in Korean. Copy and paste:
📊 How busy this area gets
Visitor-volume index for 서구, from Korea Tourism Organization big data. 1.00 = that area's own yearly average, so this compares the area against itself — not against Seoul.
Oct — 1.08
The index covers the whole district, not the festival ground itself. Use it to pick a month, not a day. · Jan 1.03 / Oct 1.08
🅿️ Nearby attractions — with actual parking capacity
Most sites only say "parking available." These are official figures from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, so you can judge before you drive.
Names and addresses here stay in Korean on purpose. Google Maps cannot give directions inside South Korea, and NAVER Map / KakaoMap find these places only under their Korean names — copy an address above and paste it straight in.
🏮 Traditional market days during the festival
Korean country markets open only on days ending in fixed digits — every 5 days. These are the actual dates they open while the festival runs, so you can add one to the same trip.
Names and addresses here stay in Korean on purpose. Google Maps cannot give directions inside South Korea, and NAVER Map / KakaoMap find these places only under their Korean names — copy an address above and paste it straight in.
🎪 Other festivals nearby at the same time
Overlapping dates, within 60 km.
Nearby Attractions
Places within 12 km of the festival venue (straight-line distance), described in English by the Korea Tourism Organization. Travel time depends on roads and traffic, so only distance is shown.
-
May 18th National Cemetery5·18 기념공원 Attractionapprox. 0.4 km
May 18th National Cemetery is a park established to commemorate the democratization movement that took place in Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City in May 18th,…
Korean address for map apps광주광역시 서구 상무민주로 61 (쌍촌동) -
Mugaksa Temple무각사 Attractionapprox. 0.6 km
Nestled at the foot of Yeouisan Mountain in the business center of Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City, Mugaksa Temple is an urban Buddhist Temple. Unlike other…
Korean address for map apps광주광역시 서구 운천로 230 -
Korea Medical Institute Gwangju Branch (재한국의학연구소 광주분사무소 Attractionapprox. 0.8 km
Korea Medical Institute (KMI), a leader in 'K-health checkups,' operates health checkup centers across eight locations nationwide, from Seoul to Jeju. KMI has been…
Korean address for map apps광주광역시 서구 상무중앙로 58 -
Therapy Spa_Sobe테라피 스파 소베 Attractionapprox. 0.9 km
Therapy Spa_Sobe gets its name by combining the first two letters of the the Latin words solus (health) and bellus (beauty) to create the word "Sobe". The spa pursues…
Korean address for map apps광주광역시 서구 상무연하로 33 -
Energy Park Haedammaru광주에너지파크 해담마루 Cultural facilityapprox. 1.0 km
Energy Park Haedammaru opened in September 28, 2021, to educate visitors on the importance of energy. By exhibiting new and renewable energy, as well as different…
Korean address for map apps광주광역시 서구 상무공원로 131
Google Maps cannot provide driving or transit directions inside South Korea. Paste the Korean addresses above into NAVER Map or KakaoMap — both work with these addresses and are what people here actually use.