Gimcheon City in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province is implementing measures to address operational problems pointed out so far and concerns over food hygiene at the 2026 Gimcheon Gimbap Festival, held for 3 days from October 23 to 25 in the area of Jikjimunhwa Park, Samyeongdaesa Park and Eco-friendly Ecological Park (Chinhwangyeong Saengtae Park). According to Gimcheon City, this year's festival has been extended from 2 days to 3, and the venue has been expanded to include Eco-friendly Ecological Park.
The festival has faced operational problems since its first edition. At the 1st festival in 2024, problems cited included a shortage of gimbap (Korean seaweed rice rolls), an inadequate operating system and a shortage of shuttle buses, and at the 2nd festival last year, waiting times for gimbap orders, transport access and getting around the large venue were raised as inconveniences. Gimcheon City said it regarded the waiting time for gimbap orders as the biggest source of inconvenience among these and prepared improvements.
To deal with waiting, the city has teamed up with Kakao Pay to introduce a system in which visitors order and pay for gimbap by scanning a QR code with their smartphone instead of standing in line. Kakao Pay said it applied QR ordering to eliminate long queues at the festival site. The festival, which last year promoted itself as having "3 nos" — no ceremonial protocol, no opening ceremony and no price gouging — has added queuing to the list this year, billing itself as a "4 nos" festival.
Transport and amenities have also been reinforced. Gimcheon City has increased on-site shuttle buses to about 60 and introduced "Sopung Taxi," a demand-responsive tourism DRT service under a Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism open-call project, and together with Kakao Mobility it is running round-trip shuttle buses to and from the festival site from Seoul, Daejeon, Busan and Gwangju. To make wayfinding easier, it has created a dedicated Kakao Map service where visitors can scan a QR code to check routes by zone, participating vendors and performance schedules, and it has installed 3 additional women-only restroom sites (5 units) and is newly operating a luggage storage service.
Hygiene has also emerged as an issue. After a suspected gimbap food poisoning case occurred recently at another local government's event, Gimcheon City said it would conduct a full inspection of ingredients at gimbap sales booths and rapid food poisoning tests during the 3 days of the festival, jointly with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. The city said it had already completed a full inspection of participating vendors' ingredients and their origins, and that mobile handwashing stations and hand sanitiser are kept on site at all times.
Safety measures for large crowds are also being carried out. TS (Korea Transportation Safety Authority), together with Gimcheon City Hall, the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency and the Gimcheon branch of the Model Drivers Association, will hold a safety campaign at the festival site, giving guidance on rules such as not running in crowded areas, not blocking passageways, and children moving together with their guardians. Festival enquiries can be made at 054-420-6714.
The detailed schedule is available on the festival details page.