The Belly Button Festival in Youthful Yanggu, the Center of Korea
🗓️ 2026.08.28 ~ 2026.08.30
The Belly Button Festival takes place in Yanggu, Gangwon-do, a county located at the exact center of the country. It is a representative comprehensive cultural arts festival, planned around the region’s distinctive geographic symbolism. This year’s edition runs under the slogan “Belly Button Login,” a cultural belly-button point of view that invites visitors to place themselves at Korea’s midpoint and take in everything happening around it.
Water anchors the program. A series of water hybrid programs is designed to blow away the sweltering late-summer heat, and the festival grounds become a venue for harmony where people of all ages and genders can participate, laugh, and enjoy themselves together. Street parades add to the lively atmosphere, and spectacular fireworks shows illuminate the night sky around the event venue. The performance lineup reaches across the civilian, military, and government communities, with concerts that vary by day and a distinctive concert for military personnel, so visitors get both something to watch and something to take part in.
The full program is divided into six categories:
- Performances — Opening ceremony, opening celebration concert, and daily main performances.
- Performances — Street parades, fireworks shows, and water gun activities.
- Events — Hands-on sessions for making Haetae Crown Royal Gomchwi kits, along with other gomchwi-related events.
- Promotion & Exhibition — Promotion of Yanggu Baekkobi, the county’s mascot, plus literature and bonsai exhibitions.
- Food & Sales — Agricultural and special product sales, Yanggu’s luxury makgeolli (Korean rice wine), cafe snacks, and a food court.
- Linked Events — G1 Radio open broadcast and a military personnel concert organized with the 21st Division.
Event Information
📍 Address: 394-21 Sang-ri, Yanggu-eup, Yanggu-gun, Gangwon-do
🛏️ Accommodation near the event
💰 Fee: Free admission; other experience fees are paid
📞 Inquiry: 033-482-9174
⭐️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yangguculture/
🖥️ Website: https://ygcf.or.kr/Festival/
What is the Belly Button Cutter Festival in Yanggu?
The Belly Button Cutter Festival is an annual summer event in Yanggu County, Gangwon Province, South Korea. The name comes from Yanggu’s nickname, the “Belly Button of Korea,” which refers to the county’s location near the center of the Korean Peninsula. The festival takes the nickname literally: the “belly button” is cut open, and the event itself is what comes out. It is a playful premise, but the festival is otherwise a conventional community fair built around summer recreation, local food, and evening entertainment.
Visitors spend the day at water-based attractions—splash zones, water slides, and riverfront games—that help people cool off during the hottest months. In the evening, there are fireworks and performances of music, dance, and traditional Korean arts. Food and craft booths run throughout the festival, giving local vendors a chance to sell their goods and giving visitors a reason to stay for several hours. The combination draws families with children, groups of friends, and travelers who want to see a part of Korea outside the major cities.
Yanggu is not a major tourist destination. It is a rural county near the Demilitarized Zone, and many of its historical attractions are connected to the Korean War. The Belly Button Cutter Festival offers a deliberate contrast to that side of the area: a summer event that uses the county’s geographic claim to fame as an occasion for a party. It does not need to stand for anything larger than that. For a few days each year, it simply gives people a reason to gather in the center of Korea.
