‘Autumnal coffee aromas’ fill the air... Ulsan’s Seongnam-dong lures visitors

【Financial News | Ulsan = Reporter Choi Soo-sang】 The 2026 Seongnam-dong Coffee Festival, featuring baristas from 70 cafes in Korea and abroad serving distinctive coffees, opens on the 30th on Culture Street in Seongnam-dong, Jung-gu, Ulsan, and runs for three days.
Now in its fourth year, the Seongnam-dong Coffee Festival is establishing itself as a merchant-led event, planned and run directly by a merchants’ council made up of local coffee-related business owners and workers.
Seongnam-dong in Jung-gu, Ulsan, where the festival is held, was once home to a huge number of tea rooms and coffee shops. With department stores, fashion streets, theaters and traditional markets clustered there, it developed into Ulsan’s busiest district after the city was designated a special industrial district in 1962. Coffee shops and cafes that began springing up one by one in its wake served as hubs for socializing and cultural exchange through the late 1990s.
The festival was conceived to connect Seongnam-dong’s old tea-room culture with today’s coffee culture and bring new vitality to the local business district.
The Seongnam-dong Coffee Business Promotion Council hosts and organizes the festival, with sponsorship from Jung-gu, Ulsan.
This year’s brewing and latte art competitions will take place on October 31 and November 1, starting at 10:30 a.m. on a special stage on Culture Street. Sixty-four well-known baristas and coffee enthusiasts will compete, showcasing their coffee-brewing techniques and artistic latte art skills.
In addition to coffee tastings and sales, spaces for hands-on activities have been set up. Booths offer hand-drip coffee, latte art, coffee bean roasting and drip-bag making, among other activities.

Families can also enjoy activities such as face painting, balloon art and instant photo printing. Pregnant women will receive free decaffeinated coffee and priority access to hands-on programs.
Visitors wearing mint-colored clothes and hats symbolizing the festival will also receive a free cup of coffee.
Other events include a stamp tour with drip-bag bundles as prizes, a tumbler challenge in which visitors receive coffee seedlings, activities to promote spending at local businesses, prize drawings and more.
An official from Jung-gu, Ulsan, said, “I hope this festival will widely promote Seongnam-dong’s history and traditions, which carry on from the old tea-room culture to today’s coffee culture, and help bring vitality to the local business district.” The official added, “We hope many residents will show interest in and take part in this festival, where they can enjoy a variety of coffees presented by renowned coffee businesses and baristas.”
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