Gwangju Kimchi Festival
October 23–25, 2026, near Gwangju City Hall in Seo-gu. Now in its 33rd year, this free festival centers entirely on kimchi: it hosts the Korea Kimchi Competition (the country's most prestigious kimchi-making contest, judged for authenticity, flavor and creativity, with a presidential award among the prizes), plus hands-on kimchi-making sessions, tastings, and cultural performances across the three days.
Getting there: Gwangju City Hall is accessible from Gwangju Songjeong Station (KTX/SRT) by city bus or taxi; if you're coming from Seoul, KTX to Gwangju Songjeong takes roughly 1.5–2 hours.
Gimcheon Gimbap Festival
October 23–25, 2026 — the same weekend as the Gwangju festival, so you'll need to choose one if you only have that window free. This is a smaller, more playful street festival built around Korea's rolled rice-and-seaweed snack, gimbap, and drew large crowds relative to the town's size in its first widely-covered edition. Its popularity has been strong enough that Gimcheon is reportedly developing a permanent "Gimbap Street" off the back of it.
Getting there: Gimcheon(Gumi) KTX Station, then a local bus or taxi into central Gimcheon.
Gumi Ramen Festival
November 6–8, 2026, around Gumi Station. This festival leans on Gumi's status as home to a major Nongshim instant-noodle factory, and has been positioning itself as a candidate for Korea's leading gourmet food festival, with a growing lineup of ramen vendors, tastings and noodle-themed programming.
Getting there: Gumi Station (KTX and regular rail) is a short walk from the festival grounds.
Planning around all three
Gwangju and Gimcheon overlap on the same weekend and sit in different provinces, so treat them as an either/or choice rather than a combined trip unless you have a full week to spend traveling between the southwest and the southeast of the country. Gumi, two weeks later, pairs more easily with a Gimcheon-area itinerary since the two cities are a short KTX hop apart. None of the three festivals require advance tickets to attend — the cost, where there is one, is typically per food item or tasting voucher rather than an entry fee.
Official sources
Checked against the sources below on 2026-09-14.