The Jeongseon Buckwheat Crepe Festival opens at winter's end in Jeongseon, Gangwon. In a village on a mountain slope where the snow melts and freezes over and over, it is an event that sees off a season with the sound of batter sizzling on iron griddles. A food that once carried people through a season hard to get past has risen to become the name of a festival.
Buckwheat crepes cannot be a showy food. Dark grayish brown batter is fried thin, then filled with sourly ripened kimchi and shredded radish and rolled up, and that is all. The moment it touches the hot griddle there is the sound of perilla oil spitting, and the thick, nutty smell rising from the buckwheat hulls pools under the tents.
This year's event is built around food and hands-on programs as its two pillars. Rather than leaving the spread of past years as it was, it has been reworked toward adding a lineup suited to younger tastes. The detailed schedule and participation fees have not been released, and the region will announce them once they are confirmed.
Jeongseon is a place where rice paddies are scarce. Buckwheat flowers and sets seed in two months or so even on barren slopes, so it was planted as a grain to fill the gaps of lean years. The crepe was a way to eat one's fill of that grain with the fewest ingredients. The fact that it was not a feast food is the starting point of this festival.
Tension arises when the memory of famine food moves over into a tourism product. Change the filling and shrink the size to match a taste that sells, and visitors increase, but why this food came about grows faint. Stick to the old cooking instead, and the number of people who come falls. Jeongseon's choice is being readjusted a little each year.
So at this festival, tasting the crepe on the plate and asking whose house the hands frying it learned in go together. The latter is not written on the information boards. Stand beside a tent and exchange a few words with the person doing the frying, and the answer comes.
Just before winter dries up and spring arrives, the mountains are still brown. The sight of batter the color of those mountains swelling and folding on an iron griddle is a seasonal scene that can be seen only in Jeongseon. Once the schedule is set, it is worth keeping a day free.
Event Information
Date: End of winter 2026
Venue: Jeongseon, Gangwon
Main programs: Buckwheat crepe food and hands-on programs
