Gangjin-gun Starts Synergy of Festival, Tourism, and Economy... Half-Price Tourism Enters Full-Scale Boom Countdown

K-Culture Origin, Gangjin Cheongja Festival Held from February 23 to March 3

First-Time 'Baekryeonsa Dongbaek Festival' Also Held Simultaneously

Gangjin-gun, Jeollanam-do, will open the door to this year’s first festival, the ‘Gangjin Celadon Festival,’ from the 23rd of this month to the 3rd of next month around the Daegu-myeon Goryeo Celadon Museum area.

According to the county on the 16th, this 52nd Celadon Festival, themed ‘Come to Gangjin, Play with Celadon,’ will feature 68 rich programs across 8 fields.

This festival, themed ‘Play with the Wheel,’ which highlights the identity of celadon, offers a rare experience course where visitors can make pottery by directly turning the wheel, and in line with this, a ‘National Wheel Throwing Competition’ will be held to liven up the atmosphere.

For a multifaceted encounter with celadon, the ‘Gangjin Premium Celadon Outlet 4 Types’ will be presented, including △Premium Celadon Sales Hall △Meeting of Tea and Pottery △Meeting of Celadon and White Porcelain △Meeting of Roses and Celadon.

Through the meeting of tea and pottery, Gangjin tea and celadon teacups provided by the ‘Lee Han-young Tea Culture Center’ will be sold together, and in the meeting of roses and celadon, in line with Gangjin’s reputation as a flower city, 15 different colored roses sourced from Chillyang will be arranged in celadon vases, creating a harmonious scene with the celadon base color, encouraging celadon purchases.

Last year's 15th Gangjin Celadon Festival opening ceremony event
[Photo by Gangjin-gun]

In particular, at the opening ceremony, Ttangsim Flower Corporation plans to distribute a thousand roses to tourists.

The ensemble of Gangjin’s ‘tea,’ highly praised by Dasan (茶山) Jeong Yak-yong, who was exiled in Gangjin for 18 years, ‘roses,’ boasting the largest market share in Jeollanam-do, and pottery is evaluated as a more advanced marketing festival than last year, as it promotes and sells local specialties.

There is also a kids’ program for family travelers with children. Various programs suitable for spending a spring day together as a family are prepared, including △Children’s Bom Bom Slide △Icefish Catching △Mini Train △Play Celladon Kids Land △Celadon Coiling △Celadon Mug Cup △Sanding Art △Making Celadon Wind Chimes, offering celadon experiences for the whole family.

Especially, the popular children’s musicals ‘Bread Barber Shop’ and ‘Shinbi Apartment’ will be performed twice a day on Saturdays and Sundays, limited to four days, on the main stage of the festival site and at the Gangjin Art Hall Grand Theater, attracting tourists not only to the festival site but also to the downtown commercial district.

On one side of the festival site, promotion of Gangjin’s four major policies?Puso, Hometown Love Donation System, Half-Price Family Tourism Gangjin, and utilization of the 4th Industrial Revolution?will be conducted, expected to become a ‘face-to-face county administration promotion venue.’

This Celadon Festival is a spring-scented festival leveraging the mild climate of the southern region, and the festival site’s red plum blossoms, which have already bloomed, and the canola flower field carefully managed by the county since May last year are expected to delight the eyes of eager spring visitors.

The opening ceremony on the 24th coincides with Daeboreum (the first full moon of the lunar year), and the county will operate traditional Daeboreum food experiences throughout the festival period, along with traditional games such as Yutnori, kite flying, Tuho, and LED rat fire play, which families can enjoy without burden.

‘Citizen Play Day,’ aimed at establishing the festival as one where town residents participate together, also stands out. ‘Citizen Days’ will be selected for four regions?east, west, south, and north?and a total of four days during the festival period will be prepared as a grand venue for citizen harmony. This reflects the belief of County Governor Kang Jin-won that for a successful festival, residents must first unite and enjoy the festival.

To continue the legacy of Goryeo celadon, known as the origin of K-culture, and to allow a friendly encounter in modern times, various experiences such as △Making Celadon 3D Puzzles △Celadon Rubbing Experience △Celadon Plate Experience △Celadon Fragment Mosaic will be offered, along with new products made by Gangjin private kilns.

Tourists visiting the Gangjin Celadon Festival are admiring ceramics that came out of the kiln. [Photo by Gangjin-gun]

The new products developed by Gangjin private kilns are expected to captivate tourists as high-quality items that showcase the charm of celadon not as museum pieces but as diverse and beautiful everyday ceramics.

The opening ceremony on the 24th will start at 4:30 PM, and the opening celebration show will feature singers such as Jang Min-ho, Hong Jin-young, Seo Ji-o, Moon Hee-ok, Yang Ji-won, and Moses. It will be broadcast live in real-time via Mokpo MBC, Yeosu MBC, and Gangjin-gun institutional SNS, and the recorded opening show will be separately aired later on Mokpo MBC.

The ‘Gangjin Baekryeonsa Camellia Festival,’ held concurrently with the Celadon Festival, is also expected to provide great momentum in attracting visitors to the Celadon Festival.

The Camellia Festival, introduced for the first time this year, features a beautiful spectacle of about 1,500 camellia trees located on the slopes of Mandeoksan Mountain, and the 1 km trail from Baekryeonsa Temple, a historic site where Dasan and Monk Hyejang shared time, to Dasan Chodang is covered with natural forests of pine, nutmeg trees, and tea trees, making it perfect for a quiet walk under warm spring sunlight.

In particular, the registration for ‘Half-Price Family Travel Gangjin’ has officially begun, and with the Celadon Festival leading and the half-price benefits pushing tourism, local merchants already have high expectations for how many tourists will gather for Gangjin’s first challenge of the year. As of the 15th, 1,987 groups totaling 5,829 people have applied for the half-price tourism.

The half-price travel policy offers families of two or more residing outside Gangjin who apply in advance and visit Gangjin a 50% refund of their spending during the trip, up to a maximum of 200,000 KRW, returned as Gangjin Love Gift Certificates.

County Governor Kang Jin-won said, “The ultimate goal of half-price family travel is to bring the benefits of a large influx of tourists not only to the tourism industry (tertiary industry) but also to the primary industries such as Gangjin’s specialties, and it is expected to be a boon to the entire Gangjin economy, including local alleyway businesses.”

He added, “In the new year of Gapjin, I hope many people come to the Gangjin Celadon Festival, which opens the first curtain of the festival city Gangjin, to fully enjoy the charm of half-price family travel Gangjin with double the excitement and half the cost.”

*Photo description: Last year’s Gangjin Celadon Festival

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