Gumi Ramyun Festival

The Gumi Ramyun Festival is a signature local festival that connects Gumi’s ramyeon industry, food culture, and tourism through the theme of ramyeon. Home to a factory operated by Nongshim, one of Korea's leading ramyeon manufacturers, Gumi is building on its ramyeon production industry to establish ramyeon as a local tourism attraction. The festival takes place throughout the old downtown area, including Gumi Station, Yeokjeon-ro, Munhwa-ro, Geumridan-gil, and Saemaeul Jungang Market. A distinctive feature of the festival is that it uses the entire city center as its venue. Highlights include Ramyeon Restaurants, Freshly Fried Ramyeon, Gat Land, Global Ramyeon Challenge, Robot Chef, and Hururuk Lounge. Visitors can experience the variety of ramyeon flavors and its food culture by sampling a wide range of dishes from across the country at Ramyeon Restaurants and trying Freshly Fried Ramyeon. Local restaurants and businesses also participate, linking the festival with the surrounding downtown area and helping revitalize the local economy. The 2026 Gumi Ramyun Festival is a distinctive urban tourism festival that brings together Gumi’s industry, tourism, food culture, and local businesses through ramyeon.

The Gumi Ramyun Festival celebrates the city's ramyeon manufacturing heritage, home to a Nongshim factory, through food stalls and activities spread across Gumi's old downtown. It's a good pick for visitors who want to sample many ramyeon varieties in one place rather than a single-stage performance festival.

Take the KTX on the Gyeongbu line from Seoul Station to Gumi Station, which is close to the festival area. Express or intercity buses from Seoul's bus terminals to Gumi are another option if you prefer bus travel.

This year's festival (6–8 November) expanded to 33 food stalls — 25 sit-down "Ramyeon Restaurants" plus 8 food trucks, up from 25 total last year — with more seating added to ease the crowding. The headline contest, the Global Ramyeon Challenge, drew 1,263 online entries from 80 countries, and 13 national finalists cooked head-to-head in the final round on 7 November. Evening stage shows ran separately from the food program: an SK Broadband concert, "Sing to You," opened the festival at 18:30 on 6 November, and the "Ssaeng Ramyeon Stage" live set followed at 19:00 on 7 November. Nongshim's "Gat Land" booth, which sells ramyeon fried fresh at its nearby Gumi factory, was expanded this year after queues for the same booth topped 1 km in 2025 — that edition also sold out a 120,000-pack Netflix "KPop Demon Hunters" tie-in. None of this is confirmed to repeat; the next edition's line-up hasn't been announced.

Gumi itself has no subway, but Gumi Station connects directly into Daegu's Subway Line 1 via the Daegyeong Line commuter rail, which opened in December 2024 and stops right outside the festival on Yeokjeon-ro; the ride takes 37 minutes to Seodaegu Station, with Daegu Station and Dongdaegu Station — both Line 1 transfer points — a few stops further down the same line. Don't confuse Gumi Station with "Gimcheon-Gumi Station" (김천구미역): that's a separate KTX-only stop about 21 km, and over 30 minutes by car, from downtown Gumi, and the name mix-up is a common mistake. From Seoul Station, direct ITX-Saemaeul or ITX-Maeum trains reach Gumi Station in roughly 3 hours (around 26,700 won); Mugunghwa trains take about 3.5 hours for around 17,900 won, and no KTX runs this particular route. For the festival weekend only, the city also ran a paid Kakao T intercity shuttle from Seoul, Daegu, Busan, Daejeon and Gwangju (round trip roughly 59,000 won from Seoul, 45,000 won from Busan, 25,000 won from Daegu), though each route needed enough bookings to actually run.

Attendance has roughly doubled each year — 80,000 in 2023, 170,000 in 2024, 350,000 in 2025 — and this year's opening day alone (6 November) drew about 90,000 people, so long lines are normal, not a bad sign. The worst waits form at the fresh-fried-ramyeon booths around dinnertime; in 2025 the queue for Nongshim's booth stretched past 1 km. This year the city added more dining space, spread performances across more locations, and introduced QR ordering and a KakaoTalk wait-list alert to cut standing time, though both tools are in Korean. Admission is free, but the food isn't: vendors are expected to follow a "fair pricing" policy, though organizers haven't published exact menu prices, and no dates or prices for the next edition are out yet.

Don't count on much English on-site: the festival's own English webpage lists only a phone number and email, and coverage of past editions suggests ordering, queue numbers and most signage are Korean-only, so a translation app is worth having. The festival runs entirely outdoors along city streets in early November, when inland Gyeongsangbuk-do stays mild enough by day but turns cold fast after sunset, so dress in layers rather than for an indoor event. Comfortable shoes matter too — the festival stretches from Gumi Station along Yeokjeon-ro into the old downtown market area, and most of the day goes to walking between stalls and standing in line.

Is "Gumi Ramyun Festival," "Gumi Ramen Festival" and "Gumi Ramyeon Festival" the same thing?

Yes — these are just different English romanizations of 라면 (ramyeon). The facts above cover the date, address and overview; this guide only adds what those don't, like transit and crowds.

When is it, and is a 2027 date out yet?

The most recent edition ran 6–8 November 2026, 10:00–21:00 daily. Gumi-si hasn't announced dates for the next edition yet.

What time does it actually start each day? (몇시부터해?)

Festival hours were 10:00–21:00 every day this year; evening stage shows ran later within that window, at 18:30 on the opening Friday and 19:00 on the Saturday. Next year's hours haven't been confirmed.

Is it free, or do I need to pay? (유료야?)

Getting in is free, but the ramyeon itself isn't — you pay per bowl at whichever stall you choose. Organizers describe a "fair pricing" policy but haven't published exact menu prices for this edition.

How bad do the crowds get?

Busy: this year's opening day alone drew about 90,000 visitors, and the freshly-fried-ramyeon booth has had waits over 1 km in the past. Go right at the 10:00 opening or on the Friday if you want to avoid the worst of it — Saturday evening is typically the peak.

Ramyeon Restaurants, Freshly Fried Ramyeon, Gat Land, Global Ramyeon Challenge