Yeongyang County in North Gyeongsang Province is turning up the spring charm with the 21st Yeongyang Wild Vegetable Festival, running May 7–10 at the Yeongyang Cultural Center and throughout the downtown area.
Centered on wild mountain vegetables, the festival has attracted visitors from across the country with its food offerings and hands-on experiences. It consistently draws steady crowds each year and has become Yeongyang County’s signature spring tourism brand.
This year, organizers are elevating the culinary program and reworking interactive activities and the event layout to encourage visitors to stay longer and savor the experience.
Attendance has held steady in the 50,000 range in recent years: about 59,000 in 2022, 57,000 in 2023, and roughly 57,000 again in 2024. When the festival ran as a Wild Vegetable Food Fair in 2025, it drew about 35,000 attendees.
The program focuses on inventive uses of wild vegetables. Moving beyond simple sales booths, the festival will showcase dishes like wild-vegetable bibimbap, savory jeon pancakes, and a variety of wrap-style dishes so visitors can taste and enjoy them on site.
There will also be guided foraging experiences and hands-on participatory programs for visitors who want to get involved.
The event layout has been redesigned around visitor flow. A central meeting plaza will link a special stage, a culinary zone, and the traditional market in a loop, so attendees naturally encounter programs as they move through the space.
The festival is emphasizing longer-stay tourism, expanding evening performances and cultural programming to create a day-to-night festival atmosphere.
“We’re preparing this year’s Wild Vegetable Festival as a culinary, hands-on event designed to encourage longer stays,” a Yeongyang County official said. “We hope many visitors will experience Yeongyang’s nature and food together.”
Yeongyang — Reporter Kim Jong-hyun gim1390@viva100.com
