Jinan Highland Kimchi Bossam Festival
🗓️ 2026.11.14 ~ 2026.11.15
The Jinan Highland Kimchi Bossam Festival is a regional festival held in Jinan-gun, Jeonbuk State. It was created to spread a community culture in which families and neighbors come together, combining the festival with kimjang—Korea’s unique traditional culture of making and sharing kimchi. As nuclear families and single-person households reshape the country’s dietary environment, the festival seeks to reflect on the traditional value of kimjang culture and share affection between neighbors through the process of making and sharing kimchi together.
What sets this festival apart from other kimchi events is its pairing of kimjang with bossam, the classic Korean dish of boiled pork wrapped in cabbage or lettuce leaves. The program includes kimjang experiences that use local agricultural products grown in the clean natural environment of the Jinan Highland, along with kimchi and bossam food programs. By placing local specialties at the center of the experience, the festival also promotes the excellence of local agricultural products and stimulates their consumption. It is a festival where the succession of traditional kimjang culture and the value of local agricultural products are experienced together.
The two-day lineup mixes contests, concerts, food, and hands-on activities:
- Opening Ceremony
- Stage Events
- Exciting Art Bus
- Kimjang Golden Bell — a quiz-style contest on all things kimjang
- SHOW ME THE Kimjang — a kimjang competition with a name inspired by the hip-hop audition show “Show Me The Money”
- Autumn Music Concert
- Red Ginseng Cocktail Event — a cocktail experience featuring red ginseng from the region
- Trot Concert
- Band Concert
- Permanent Operation: Kimchi Village Pop-up Zone, Flea Market, Plateau Grill Zone, Food Booths
- Make Your Own Home Kimjang Experience: 3 sessions per day
- Experience Fee: 185,000 KRW (1 set: 20kg salted cabbage + 10kg seasoning)
- Recruitment Period: Until closed on a first-come, first-served basis
📍 Address: 1166 Jinmu-ro, Jinan-eup, Jinan-gun, Jeonbuk State
🛏️ Accommodation near the event
💰 Fee: Free (Some experience programs have a fee – Make Your Own Home Kimjang Experience)
📞 Inquiry: 063-433-6613
⭐️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jinan_gun
🖥️ Homepage: www.jinankimchi.kr
Kimchi bossam
Kimchi bossam is a Korean dish made with boiled pork belly and aged kimchi, served with leaves for wrapping. The word bossam means “wrapped” or “bundled,” and the dish is assembled at the table: a leaf of lettuce, perilla, or blanched cabbage is topped with a thick slice of pork, a spoonful of kimchi, and usually some ssamjang, a sauce made from fermented soybean paste and chili paste. Sliced garlic, pickled radish, and raw onion are common additions.
The pork is cooked slowly until tender, often simmered with scallions, garlic, onion, and ginger. It is then rested and sliced into pieces thick enough to hold up in a wrap. The broth left from boiling can be used for a simple soup or discarded.
The kimchi used is typically mugeunji, meaning kimchi that has been fermented for weeks or months. By that point it is noticeably sour, with a softer texture and a deeper flavor than the fresher kimchi served as a side dish. That acidity matters: it balances the fatty pork, while the leaves and crunchy add-ins keep the mouthful from becoming too heavy.
There is no single correct way to assemble a wrap. The order and proportions are up to the person eating it, and most people adjust as they go. What stays consistent is the pairing of rich, mild pork with sharp, fermented kimchi—a combination that works because each part does a specific job on the palate, not because it is exotic or complicated.
