Goesan is a county of farms in the middle of Chungcheongbuk-do, known for chili peppers and salted cabbage, and its gimjang festival is built around the one job those two crops are for: the annual winter batch of kimchi. Kimjang, the making and sharing of kimchi, is on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list. This festival is a place to take part rather than only watch. The 2026 theme is “RED하게 세상을 버무리다”, roughly “toss the world together in red”.
The festival runs 5-8 November 2026, listed by the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) at 10:00-20:00, at 92 Imkkeokjeong-ro in Goesan-eup. Most of it is on the Organic Expo Plaza. The Drive-Thru kimjang has moved to the Goesan Sports Complex. General entry is free; the organiser is Goesan County (043-830-3463).
What you actually do here
The core activity is making kimchi at a table. In the One-Stop format you arrive at the plaza with a pre-booked set of salted cabbage and filling, mix it yourself, and staff help carry the finished box to your car. Drive-Thru is the same job done at a private booth beside your parked vehicle, so it assumes you have a car. Children’s and teenagers’ sessions are separate, with 40 places per session and online booking, and the Master’s Kimjang Hall, led by the kimchi master Lee Ha-yeon, runs eight sessions of 30 people with both advance and on-site registration.
If you have no booking, the day is about everything around those tables: a K-Kimchi Market with finished kimchi from across the country, a walk-in kimjang stall for cabbage, young radish or green-onion kimchi, a bonfire zone for skewers, kimchi-grilled pork belly and roasted chestnuts, and an expanded K-RED Food Street. The official page also lists a free pork-tasting event, free photo printing and a kimchi exhibition hall. Prices for most of these were not published.
Booking versus walk-in
This is where a visitor can go wrong. Booking for the two main kimjang formats opened on 8 October at 10:00 for 1,001 teams in total: 700 One-Stop, 280 Drive-Thru and 21 large-volume teams of 100 kg or more. By 20 October a regional report said most places were already gone. Treat the main formats as unavailable unless the official site shows cancellations.
Kits come in four sizes: a standard 20 kg set (148,000 won), an eco-friendly 20 kg set (170,000 won), and 10 kg versions at 76,000 and 86,000 won. Those prices matched between two sources. A 20 kg box is a lot of kimchi for a traveller; the 10 kg size is the realistic option if you can still book it. The sources do not describe an English booking page. Foreign visitors are reported to have a day of their own on 5 November, but the official page does not say how they book, so ask the organiser.
Programme and timetable
The official site and local press agree on the main events but not on every detail, and no hour-by-hour timetable was published. As reported:
- 5 November: a K-concert on the opening night, and the reported day for foreign visitors.
- 6 November: the opening ceremony and concert with guest singers Byun Jin-sub, Kim Beom-ryong and Kim Da-hyun, followed by fireworks. A township kimchi contest (the “neighbourhood kimjang master” competition) also runs. The reported day for people with disabilities.
- 7 November: the national kimjang competition, with 12 finalist teams and a total prize pool of 7 million won, according to the official page. A bonfire concert follows with Yurisangja, Kim Hee-sung and Lee Dong-hyun. Press places the comedy show here too, although the official page says it runs twice a day. Reported children’s day.
- 8 November: the closing ceremony and concert, followed by fireworks. Reported teenagers’ day.
Fireworks are reported for the nights of 6 and 8 November. The start times were not published, and the festival’s listed hours end at 20:00, so check the official notice before planning a last bus around a show.
A separate programme, village kimjang, runs for the whole of November at 15 participating farms and is booked through the Goesan Jangteo online market. It is not on the festival grounds.
Tickets, fees and booking
Entry is free, which makes the market, the bonfire zone and the stage shows easy to sample without committing money. KTO’s English record says “separate fee applies to experiences”, and its Korean record mentions a smaller fee for some of them. The kimjang kits above are the only experience prices confirmed in more than one source. The Master’s Kimjang fee, the walk-in kimjang price and the K-Kimchi Market prices were not found.
Separately, the county kept its Goesan Sigol salted-cabbage price at 45,000 won for a 20 kg box, shipping extra. That is the cabbage alone, sold outside the festival kits.
Getting there without a car
Take an intercity bus from Dong Seoul Bus Terminal to Goesan, about two hours according to both Goesan County’s English page and a separate timetable site. They disagree on how often buses leave (every 10-20 minutes versus about ten a day), so look up the live timetable. The county gives the Goesan terminal’s number as 043-833-3355. How far the terminal is from the festival, and whether a shuttle runs between them, was not checked.
The county page also gives driving figures from the expressway: Goesan IC to Goesan is about 25 minutes, Jeungpyeong IC about 40 minutes. Those are county figures, not a festival route.
Parking, shuttles and traffic control
The county reported planning more than 1,900 spaces across the town public car park, the multipurpose sports ground and the Dongjin Stream riverbed, and discussing separate shuttle and pedestrian routes. A shuttle schedule, stop list and road-closure plan had not been published when this was written. A joint safety inspection is planned for 4 November, so the final arrangements may appear just before the festival.
Moving the Drive-Thru kimjang to the sports complex was meant to make parking easier and ease congestion. If you are driving for a booked slot, follow the instructions on your booking, not a navigation pin.
Day trip or overnight
The bus time and the festival’s 10:00-20:00 hours make a day trip possible in principle, but this guide does not call it either way: the last bus back to Seoul was not checked, and neither were the end times of the concerts. Look up the return bus before you buy the outbound ticket. Accommodation in Goesan was not researched, so no hotel is recommended.
Food on site and nearby
On site, the official page lists grilling at the bonfire zone (skewers, kimchi-grilled pork belly, roasted chestnuts), the K-Kimchi Market and an expanded K-RED Food Street, plus a free pork tasting. The official site has a restaurant price-guide page, but no figures were available when this was checked. Vegetarian options and ingredients were not stated for any stall, and kimchi seasoning often includes fish products in general, so ask before you eat if that matters.
For a local crop to look for, see the specialties above: Cheonggyeol chili and the county’s salted cabbage.
Honest assessment
The festival’s strength is that it is practical rather than decorative. You get a table, cabbage and seasoning and make something you take home, in the town that grows the ingredients. Admission is free, and the market and grilling make a decent half day even without a booking.
Its weakness for a foreign visitor is access. The headline experiences were reported close to sold out two weeks before opening, the booking process is described only in Korean sources, and English support is unconfirmed. Carrying fresh kimchi back to a hotel or onto a flight is your problem; no on-site shipping service was confirmed. The official photos here appear to be from the 2025 edition, since banners in them read “2025”, and are shown only to give a sense of the layout. Check the official site and the organiser line again close to travel.
