18th Gangneung Coffee Festival wraps up, with coffee filling the air for five days as car-free street makes debut

【Financial News Gangneung = Kim Gi-seop, reporter】The 18th Gangneung Coffee Festival, which for the first time turned part of Anmok Coffee Street into a car-free zone and expanded its venue to include the beach and pine grove, drew visitors for five days and concluded without any safety incidents.
According to the Gangneung Cultural Foundation on the 25th, this year's festival, held from the 21st through the 25th along Gangneung Coffee Street and across Gangneung, substantially expanded stay-oriented offerings at Anmok Beach and Songjeong Pine Forest. The signature programs 100 People, 100 Flavors, All Kinds of Gangneung Coffee, and Anmok Coffee Radio drew long queues, while the newly introduced Barista's Table let visitors sample signature coffees by Korean baristas alongside traditional Gangneung desserts.
The most noticeable change was the car-free street. By converting an area previously used by vehicles into a pedestrian-focused space, the coffee street and beach were naturally connected. A sudden drop in temperatures somewhat dampened use of the outdoor cafes, but the festival was seen as demonstrating the potential to develop the area into a multifaceted cultural space featuring street performances and arts and cultural programs.
Coffee Picnic at Songjeong Pine Forest, the nighttime program On a Starry Night at Anmok Beach, and the Kids' Playground and Coffee Sports Day for children and their guardians also drew a positive response from visitors. The I, Too, Am a Barista program, where international students could experience coffee culture, was held, and multilingual information materials and interpreters were provided in connection with the 2026 Gangneung World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems.
The local community, including volunteers, the Anmok Prosperity Association, and community groups in Songjeong-dong, helped guide visitors, maintain the venue, and keep order. Starting this year, the foundation plans to use big-data analysis by the Korea Tourism Organization to calculate official visitor numbers and combine feedback from the citizen evaluation panel with the findings of a professional evaluation study, before discussing areas for improvement at a results-sharing meeting in early November.
An official from the Gangneung Cultural Foundation said, “Once we removed cars from Coffee Street, the beach and pine grove became connected as one festival venue. We are grateful to the residents and volunteers who helped out despite the bad weather, and we will prepare an even more substantial festival next time based on the feedback gathered from citizens at the results-sharing meeting and the big-data analysis findings.”

[email protected] Kim Gi-seop Reporter