20,000 Won Sundae, 10 Million Won Seat Fee... The Burden of 'Overpriced Local Festivals' [Yeit Suda]

"A Plate of Sundae Costs 20,000 Won"

Recently, a visitor to the Hongcheon Kkongkkong Festival night market saw menu prices at a food booth listed as "20,000 won for a plate of Sundae, 7,000 won each for Tteokbokki and noodles." He paid a total of 34,000 won for snacks and posted a complaint saying, "This is really too much," which sparked criticism. Festivals are events and long-standing traditions where one can experience the culture and characteristics of a region all in one place. Unlike in the past, when just hearing the word 'festival' made hearts race and spirits soar, recent festivals held across the country have been plagued by controversies over 'overcharging.'

Scenery of a local festival site. This photo is not directly related to the article.

In May last year, a controversy arose over a 70,000 won price for a 1.5 kg bag of traditional snacks at the Yeongyang Wild Vegetable Festival in Gyeongbuk, revealed on a major broadcast program. Similarly, a Japanese YouTuber posted a video last year showing a bowl of fish cake at the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival costing 10,000 won, which drew comments calling it an international embarrassment and pointing out "this is the ugly truth of local festivals."

Is the issue of overpriced food at local festivals a recent problem? No matter which festival you attend nationwide, you often see monotonous menus, prices that are hard to justify, and rows of tents and makeshift tables that seem to have been moved from other festivals just the day before. Witnessing this, the emotions and memories inspired by the festival program evaporate on the spot, leaving only bitter recollections.

Local governments acknowledge these overcharging issues but say they are difficult to address. The fundamental problem is that it is challenging to develop unique local foods that appeal to all ages, and since the organizing committee manages everything during the festival participation process, it is hard for local governments to control the vendors. Ultimately, local governments have lost the ability to manage and guarantee the ingredients, variety, prices, and quality of the food.

So why are food prices at festival sites particularly expensive? Kim Jong-won, director of the Korea Festival Culture Promotion Association, pointed out, "Most of the vendors causing overcharging problems at local festivals are merchants from outside the area." He explained, "They rent private land around the festival and sublease it to outside mobile vendors during the festival period. This cost can be as high as 10 million won, and to recover this expense, vendors reluctantly overcharge customers despite knowing they will be criticized."

Is blocking outside vendors the solution? Local merchants say no. Some local governments adopt a public application system for food zones to ensure fairness, but in reality, festival sites resemble street stalls, favoring restaurants equipped with the facilities and manpower to operate outdoor booths. Vendors who want to introduce unique local foods but lack these conditions do not even consider participating in the festival, so only the same restaurants that have participated every year can repeatedly take part.

As the problem worsened, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism introduced a festival food information disclosure system and from this year added management evaluation items related to overcharging to publicly disclose festival food information. However, in the six months since implementation, only 155 out of 1,129 local festivals participated, raising questions about its effectiveness. At the heart of K-culture, which has captivated the world, lie food and our traditional culture. Now, aiming to attract 20 million foreign tourists, if we cannot even gain the trust of our people due to 'overcharging,' how can we confidently present our food and culture to international visitors?

Editor's NoteYeitsuda (藝It Suda) is an abbreviation for 'Art Talk,' a column covering issues and trends across culture including music, art, performance, and tourism.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.