18th Gangneung Coffee Festival to Open on the 21st; 350-Meter Coffee Street to Become an Open-Air Café

【Financial News, Gangneung = Reporter Kim Gi-seop】The 18th Gangneung Coffee Festival opens next week, with 200 sets of outdoor tables laid out along a 350-meter stretch of Gangneung Coffee Street, transforming the entire street into one open-air café. Visitors will also be able to enjoy the aroma of coffee throughout Gangneung, including in Jumunjin and at Ojukheon.
Gangneung City said on the 14th that it and the Gangneung Culture Foundation will hold the 18th Gangneung Coffee Festival for five days, from the 21st to the 25th, on Gangneung Coffee Street and throughout the city. Hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province and Gangneung City, and organized by the Gangneung Culture Foundation, the festival has been designated a 2026–2027 cultural tourism festival. Its 23 programs across three categories will run daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. This year’s festival, whose slogan is “Coffeeful Gangneung,” has shifted from an event where visitors grab a coffee and leave to one where they stay and enjoy themselves, combining coffee culture with Gangneung’s distinctive attractions, including the sea, pine groves, cuisine and leisure.
The biggest change is the festival’s footprint. While it has previously centered on Coffee Street, this year it will operate neighborhood outposts of the Coffee Festival in places including Jumunjin, Okgye, Jungang Market and Ojukheon, offering coffee tastings, hands-on activities and busking. The stamp rally, previously held only during the festival, has been converted to a mobile pass and has been underway for about two months since last September. The receipt event, previously limited to the festival grounds, has also been expanded across Gangneung, with the qualifying purchase amount raised from 30,000 won to 50,000 won to help direct visitors’ spending to businesses throughout the local economy.
New programs combining the sea and leisure have also been added. Coffee Wave, where participants drink coffee aboard a yacht, will run at Gangneung Port, while Coffee Therapy, combining coffee with singing-bowl meditation and yoga, will be introduced for the first time. A Coffee Picnic area equipped with camping chairs, hammocks and tables will be set up in the Songjeong pine grove, and the nighttime program A Starry Night will take place on Anmok Beach.
The Songjeong pine grove, expected to draw families, will host a book trip in partnership with the Korea Tourism Organization, along with coffee busking, a kids’ play area and a Coffee Field Day. The signature nighttime fireworks show has been cut from two displays last year to one this year, and will take place once, at 8 p.m. on the 24th.


At 100 People, 100 Flavors, a festival highlight, 100 participants will share coffee they brew themselves using their own beans and brewing equipment. All Kinds of Gangneung Coffee, featuring 20 local cafés, and the All Kinds of Coffee Beans shop, selling whole beans and drip bags, will also open. Visitors can try hand-drip brewing, siphon brewing and roasting in the coffee experience zone.
The festival’s global programs targeting international visitors have also been expanded. The city has created a Global Coffee Lounge in conjunction with the Gangneung Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) World Congress, which is taking place at the same time. The lounge’s Barista’s Table is a culinary program serving a coffee master’s signature coffee alongside a spread of Gangneung’s traditional desserts, including hangwa, dried persimmons and yakgwa. From the 21st to the 25th, except Saturday, it will run for one hour starting at 2 p.m., with 30 people accepted per session. The fee is 20,000 won per person, and registration will be available both in advance and on site.
I, Too, Am a Barista, where international students learn to make hand-drip coffee themselves, will also be offered. With about 1,700 international participants expected at the ITS World Congress, the city will set up cross-promotion booths at both venues and hold a linked stamp rally, giving a special souvenir to visitors who attend both events. It also plans to produce leaflets in English, Chinese and Japanese, an English-language map of the festival grounds, and provide interpreters on site.
Five shuttle buses will be deployed for the first time to make getting around easier. They will run a loop from Gangneung Station to the festival grounds via the sports complex, Gangneung Convention Center and Gangneung Green City Experience Center (E-zen). The city plans to coordinate the service with major parking areas to ease traffic congestion around the festival site.
Eom Geum-mun, head of Gangneung City’s Culture, Tourism and Marine Affairs Bureau, said, “This year, we’ve taken a festival that used to stay on Coffee Street and extended it throughout Gangneung with neighborhood outposts and shuttle buses, adding yachts, pine groves and even meditation to create a festival where people can stay for at least a day. We’ll be ready to ensure that international visitors coming for the World Congress, too, can enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee by the sea and among the pine groves and fully experience the appeal of Gangneung, the coffee city.”

[email protected] Kim Gi-seop Reporter