Gimje Horizon Festival

🗓️ 2026.10.01 ~ 2026.10.05

The Gimje Horizon Festival is one of Korea’s Honorary Representative Culture and Tourism Festivals, designated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. It is the only one among them built around traditional agricultural culture, and it takes place at Byeokgolje, the oldest and largest irrigation facility in Korea. Against a backdrop of vast golden fields and the horizon, the festival offers a range of attractions, including the nation’s first Presidential Cup National Nongak (Farmers’ Music) Competition. Visitors can also try agricultural activities directly, such as cooking rice in a traditional hearth, catching grasshoppers, harvesting rice, and threshing. On-site folk events—including the Ssangyong (Twin Dragons) Play, based on the Byeokgolje legend, and the Ipseok Tug-of-War, held to pray for a bountiful harvest—invite audience participation and add to the festival atmosphere.

Main Programs

Presidential Cup Horizon National Nongak Competition: The only Presidential Cup competition among national festival competitions. Regional Nongak teams from across the country take part, giving visitors the chance to experience the essence of traditional Korean farmers’ music and dance.
Byeokgolje Legend Ssangyong Play: A representative traditional event and cultural performance staged with residents of Buryang-myeon, Gimje-si. It is a situational performance based on the Twin Dragon legend connected to Byeokgolje, the main stage of the Gimje Horizon Festival.
Bountiful Harvest Prayer Ipseok Tug-of-War: A traditional folk game and cultural performance operated with residents of Gyowol-dong, Gimje-si. It is held to pray for a bountiful harvest on the first full moon of the lunar year.

Experience Programs

Earth Art Zipline Experience: An exotic leisure sport experience crossing over the large-scale Earth Art, a paddy field experience center created at Byeokgolje.
Cooking Rice in a Traditional Hearth: An experience to cook and eat cauldron rice together with family using a small traditional hearth.
Horizon Kite Flying: A program to fly various kites simultaneously, billed as the largest kite-flying project in the country.

Subsidiary Programs

LED Earth Art: A nighttime landscape created by installing lighting on the Earth Art installation, which depicts Ssarikong-i in Hanbok welcoming visitors with the abundance and warmth of the horizon.
Ssarikong-i Bale Art Exhibition: A bale art exhibition that showcases the festival’s sensibility, with drawings ranging from the Ssarikong-i character to popular characters.
Horizon Final Fantasy Show: A final media show combining lasers, lighting, fireworks, and multimedia as a large-scale night spectacle.

Food and Other Programs

Regionally Specialized Food Booths: Booths selling representative foods from towns, townships, and villages, as well as food from representative local restaurants selected through the ‘Matbo-jago Competition’, a project to eliminate poor-quality festival food.
Horizon Greeting Street: Snack sales booths for the younger generation to enjoy.
Agricultural and Special Products Direct Market: A market selling raw and processed agricultural, livestock, and fishery products and special products produced in Gimje.

Practical Information

📍 Address: 442 Byeokgolje-ro, Buryang-myeon, Gimje-si, Jeonbuk State

🛏️ Accommodation near the event

💰 Fee: Free (Some paid)

📞 Inquiry: 063-540-3172

⭐️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gimjehorizonfestival/

🖥️ Homepage: http://festival.gimje.go.kr/

What is Byeokgolje?

Byeokgolje is an ancient agricultural reservoir in Gimje, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea. It was built during the Baekje period in the early 4th century and is among the oldest and largest irrigation facilities in Korean history. The name can be translated as “reservoir made of a wall of earth,” referring to the large embankment that held water for farmland.

The reservoir served the Gimje Plain, a major grain-producing area. It collected water from nearby streams and released it during dry periods, allowing farmers to grow rice more consistently. This supported the Baekje kingdom and later states that relied on the region’s harvests. The scale of the structure was considerable for its time, and its design influenced irrigation works elsewhere in Korea.

The site is now designated a Historic Site, and parts of the embankment remain visible in the fields. During the Gimje Horizon Festival, Byeokgolje is used as the setting for events and demonstrations of traditional farming tools and techniques. Visitors can walk along the old reservoir routes and see how the landscape has been shaped by long-term agricultural use.