The 5th Gangjeong Village Ecology Festival runs for three days from Friday, July 3, through Sunday, July 5, around the Gangjeong Stream in Seogwipo, Jeju. The festival's slogan is "Better the More We Share Water," a pun that slips in the character for water (水) and carries the root of the name Gangjeong itself.
The Gangjeong Stream is a watercourse where water flowing down from the southern slopes of Hallasan passes through cracks in the basalt and out to the sea. The fact that this water has served as a drinking water source for the residents of Seogwipo gives a sense of how the people of this village regard water.
Snorkeling means putting your face in the water and looking directly at the creatures where the stream meets the sea, and ecological backpacking means shouldering a pack and walking along the course of the water. The Eco Sunset Run is a program timed to the hour when the sun goes down, and all three programs have participants learn the village's terrain by using their bodies.
A festival you watch and a festival you experience with your body leave behind different sensations. Rather than sitting in front of a stage and going home, a lineup that has visitors enter the water, walk and run makes them part of the village for a while.
The place name Gangjeong has long been spoken as a name of conflict. There is no festival that can erase that time, and putting water and ecology forward does not settle what the village went through. Even so, as an attempt by a village to introduce its own name in a different sentence, this festival, now in its fifth year, is one way of doing it.
The more people go in, the more the stream is trodden and clouded. Inviting people into water that is both a drinking source and a habitat for living things is a matter to be handled carefully, and those putting on the festival are surely aware of that. Anyone taking part in the water programs owes the stream bed and the streamside vegetation the minimum courtesy of not disturbing them.
For details on how the programs run and how to take part, it is more accurate to check the village festival announcements. It begins in three days.
Event Information
Dates: Friday, July 3 - Sunday, July 5, 2026
Venue: Around the Gangjeong Stream, Seogwipo, Jeju
Main programs: Snorkeling, ecological backpacking, Eco Sunset Run
