[DiaryPoint | Reporter Choi Seung-jin] The 31st Gimhae Buncheong Ceramics Festival runs through Nov. 10 at Lotte Garden Park in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province. The festival is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., closing at 6 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays. It opened on Nov. 6 and, for the first time since launching in 1996, moved from Jinye-myeon to the downtown Jangyu area.
The venue is Lotte Garden Park inside Lotte Premium Outlets Gimhae, at 1410 Sinmun-dong, Gimhae. The festival moved from Jinye-myeon to Jangyu, a busier part of the city. “We’ve moved the festival to an urban setting so anyone can drop by and enjoy it,” a Gimhae city official said. The city said it prepared visitor routes, amenities and safety measures for the new location.
Exhibits include a gallery on the history of buncheong ware, winning pieces from the Buncheong Ceramics Competition and a space for young ceramic artists to connect. Visitors can also buy work by local potters and watch master potters demonstrate on the wheel. The grand prize at the 17th Korea Buncheong Ceramics Competition went to “Dream of a Buncheong Fish” by Gimhae artist Kim Sang-seong. The competition drew 101 works from 75 artists nationwide. Fifty award-winning pieces will be on display in the first-floor lobby of Lotte Hotel & Resort during the festival.
Activities include a Buncheong Land stamp tour, pottery-wheel and coiling workshops, mug decorating and a ceramic excavation experience. The Korea Tourism Organization says the stamp tour includes five activities. Buncheong ware, a distinctive Korean ceramic tradition, is described as one of Gimhae’s signature products in the early Joseon period. The festival brings together exhibitions and sales, pottery-making activities and live demonstrations.
The Korea Tourism Organization lists admission as paid and says all ceramics are 20% off, with an additional 10% discount for food-service business owners. The listing also features pottery-wheel and coiling workshops, mug decorating and the excavation activity. Food options include chueotang (loach soup) and beef soup with rice, each 9,000 won, and buchujeon (Korean chive pancake) for 8,000 won.
Featured events listed by the Korea Tourism Organization include a family pottery-making contest, a soil-stacking contest, a public ceramics auction, a children’s tea ceremony demonstration and a squeaky-toy performance. Gimhae also highlights “A Thousand People’s Buncheong,” a project in which 1,000 residents fill ceramic slabs, along with the public auction. On the festival’s final day, Nov. 10, the site closes at 6 p.m. For inquiries, call 055-330-3244.