Coffee and Activities to Pick at the Gangneung Coffee Festival

If you want to get to know Gangneung's many cafes in one place, look for the Byeol-ui-byeol Gangneung Coffee (별의별 강릉커피) tasting event. Four sessions a day are listed for the festival period, October 21 to 25, and different local cafes introduce their own menus depending on the time slot. After comparing flavors near the general information center, it is also good to turn it into a trip by visiting the cafes you liked separately. It especially suits people looking for a cup different from their usual americano.

The official timetable lists different drinks, from a latte made with soft tofu to moka pot coffee and filter coffee. If you are after a particular drink, check the date and session of your visit first. A decaf americano is listed for the 6 p.m. session on Saturday, so you can reflect your caffeine choices in your plans too. Check the tasting portion and how waiting works on site at the operating booth, and when you move through several activities in a row, choose according to how much you can drink.

If you want to go a step beyond drinking coffee and make it yourself, choose the Coffee Experience Zone. The official description lists brewing activities using a cezve, siphon, moka pot, and espresso machine, as well as making drip bags and roasting beans. It is a space where you can see how the coffee-making process differs from tool to tool, and it suits visitors who are interested in home cafes or are trying brewing for the first time.

This program is paid and runs inside the Coffee Festival Market. The notice says brewing activities are held on the hour and at 20 and 40 minutes past, but a mixed-in listing of the total number of sessions per day makes it more accurate to check the sessions on site. Roasting is introduced as running all day. Pick one favorite tool first and ask how much time the activity takes. Pair it with browsing the market, but registering right before a performance starts could leave you rushed.

If you want to see the festival's signature coffee scene, put Saturday's 100 People 100 Flavors Performance in your plan. It is an event where 100 Gangneung citizen baristas, selected through an open call in advance, each present their own coffee. It takes place at the Global Coffee Lounge at 2 p.m. on October 24, and its distinctive feature is seeing many people brew coffee at the same time and meeting the many flavors made by citizens. It is not a standing activity that repeats on other dates.

It must be told apart from programs where visitors join in on the spot as baristas. The participants brewing the coffee have already gone through advance recruitment, so plan around watching and tasting. How the tasting order works and how waiting is handled on site can follow the operating notice. You could do a humanities talk or a beach walk in the morning of the same day and see this event in the afternoon. Rather than expecting to taste every coffee, enjoy it as time to discover flavors that interest you.

If you like hearing stories over a cup of coffee, pick Coffee and Humanities. It is held every day of the festival at 11 a.m. at the Global Coffee Lounge, and each day covers a different topic such as history, film, and Gangneung myths. The official notice specifies free lectures, coffee provided to participants, and advance registration for 30 people per session. It suits visitors who want to sit calmly for a while before they start looking around the festival grounds.

Thursday is a lecture reading film and coffee together, Saturday is a story of coffee in Korea's modern era, and Sunday is a topic that looks anew at Shin Saimdang. First pick the topic that interests you and check the registration status for that date. It is better not to assume that anyone who arrives on site can get a seat right away. After the lecture, you can go on to the bean shop or a tasting event and connect the taste you found in the stories to an actual cup.

If you want to take home the memory of the coffee you had in Gangneung, check out the Byeol-ui-byeol Bean Shop and goods corner. It is a space where you can compare beans and drip bags from local roasteries and the festival's official goods in one place. It runs all through the festival next to the general information center, and the official program description lists a 10% discount on all items. It is convenient that you can look at the descriptions of different beans and choose without traveling between several cafes.

When buying beans, think first of the brewing tools you normally use and the flavors you like rather than the packaging design. Asking the seller whether grinding is needed and how long after opening you can drink them will help your choice. If you have no tools on your trip or plan to give them as gifts, comparing drip bags is another option. Check the discounted prices and available items against the sales labels that day, and noting down the name of the beans you bought will make it easier to find that roastery again later.

If you arrive at the festival grounds and are unsure what to taste first, start by looking around the Coffee Festival Market. Coffee and dessert sales booths are gathered together, so it is a good place for the people you came with to pick and compare different menu items. The location is listed as the road next to Songjeong Pine Grove, from Songjeong Futsal Field to the Pepsi Cola stretch. It is a program that runs all day from October 21 to 25, but actual sales may vary depending on each individual seller's preparations.

Rather than ordering right away at one booth, take a quick look at the whole lineup and decide on the flavors you like, and the choice gets easier. The Coffee Experience Zone is also inside the market, so you can combine drinking and making experiences. The official description alone cannot promise that a particular dessert is sold in the same quantity every day, so check the menu boards. When carrying the coffee you bought, watch the viewing routes around you, and if you plan to rest in the pine grove, pick a dessert that is easy to eat with your drink.

If you want to enjoy the atmosphere of Anmok Beach itself, look around the open-air cafe and the handicraft market together. The official notice introduces a space with outdoor tables set up along the roughly 350-meter Coffee Street, where you can enjoy coffee looking at the sea. A market where you can browse crafts and household items is connected as well, so it suits a schedule where you pick a drink and then walk slowly. It runs all day around Gangneung Coffee Street during the festival period, October 21 to 25.

It suits people who want to rest at their own pace more than follow activities with set sessions, such as brewing experiences or performances. Since it is an outdoor space by the sea, choose where to sit by looking at the sun and wind. If you and your companions decide on the craft booths you are interested in and look around, you can find each person's taste beyond coffee. Do not assume the tables are always empty, and check how they are being used on site. You can ask sellers directly about product prices and how they are made.

If you go to the coffee festival with children, remember the kids playground and Coffee Sports Day at Anmok Haemaji Park. Activities that families take part in together are introduced, including wooden play equipment, moving coffee beans, and tossing coffee bean pouches. It is nice that even children who do not drink coffee can meet the festival's theme through play. It runs from October 21 to 25, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., so it is suitable to schedule family activities during the daytime.

The official notice also includes a goods event to find golden coffee beans and golden pinecones hidden around the festival grounds. However, do not assume everyone who takes part receives an item, and check the conditions for collecting on site. Guardians can look first at the play that suits their child and adjust the travel time between other programs. The closing time differs from the coffee market that runs into the evening, so on a schedule where you arrive late, it is good to visit the playground first and then continue with the adults' coffee time.

If you would rather rest with a cup of coffee than rush around many booths, look for the Coffee Picnic space. It is a relaxation program set up between Haemaji Park in Songjeong Pine Grove and Songjeong Futsal Field. The official description introduces an atmosphere of enjoying coffee and desserts with camping chairs, hammocks, and party lights. It runs all day during the festival, so it is a good place to catch your breath between tastings and activities. It is also a course for slowly experiencing the pine grove close to the sea.

Use it by reading a book or talking with your companions over a drink you chose at the sales booths. A Book Trip program is also listed in the same area, so look at it too if you are interested. Rather than assuming there are enough chairs or hammocks on site, it is better to look at how they are being used and decide where to stay. If you plan to rest into the evening, bring clothes suited to the temperature and wind. Securing rest time first makes it easier to adjust a schedule packed too full of activities.

If you want to add music to a beach walk, stop for a while around the Coffee Busking times. At the busking zone on the sand of Gangneung Coffee Street, four performances a day are held during the festival. They are listed at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., 4 p.m., and 6:30 p.m., so you can fit them in whether you visit in the daytime or the evening. It connects naturally with other activities, such as listening to music after choosing a coffee or heading to the market after a show.

The performers are not the same at every session, so if you want to see a particular act, check the official table for that date first. Band performances are listed for Saturday afternoon, which visitors building a day around music can refer to. Considering that it is a performance on the sand, leave room for travel and preparing to watch. Rather than moving back and forth in front of the stage once a performance starts, look at the surrounding routes and choose your spot, and tidy up your drink containers and trash together after watching.

If you want a different experience outside the festival grounds, look at Coffee Wave, which departs from Gangneung Port. It is a paid program of enjoying coffee on a yacht, and the official notice divides it into hourly daytime sailings from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a sunset sailing from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. It suits visitors who want to meet the sea they looked at from the beach from a different vantage point. Registration is listed as on site or by phone.

Do not assume it runs at set times the way land festival programs do. The official description itself says the content may change depending on coastal conditions, so check the bookable sessions, cost, and boarding conditions with the registration desk first. Since it is a late-autumn onboard activity, warm clothing is needed too. If you plan to continue with other performances, include travel to the port and boarding preparation time in your plan. If you choose the sunset sailing, also look at whether it overlaps with evening busking or night programs.

If you plan to stay through Saturday night, consider the 8 p.m. fireworks on October 24 as your final activity. The official program lists the Gangneung Port breakwater as the location and says a fireworks show over the sea will be presented against the backdrop of Anmok Beach at night. It is not an event held every day of the festival, so if watching fireworks is your goal, fit your visit to Saturday. It connects well with a day of tastings and the market in the daytime and the beach atmosphere in the evening.

Do not read the word breakwater as a viewing course where you go in person to the launch point. It is better to decide the areas where you can actually stand and watch, and your route there, according to the event site's guidance. On Saturday there is also the 100 People 100 Flavors Performance at 2 p.m., so you can pick a coffee event and a night-time show together. After the fireworks, visitors heading home move together, so leave extra room for your next plans and transportation. Whether it goes ahead that day and at what time can be checked against the official on-site notice.