The Iho Tewoo Festival runs at Iho Tewoo Beach in Jeju City from Friday, July 31 to Sunday, August 2. For three days, a hands-on program that does not stop at watching Jeju's traditional fishing with wondam and jokdae but has visitors try it with their own hands sits at the center of the festival.
It is a festival that follows the tide.
A wondam is a stone net built by stacking basalt along the shore in the shape of a half moon. Fish that come inside the wall on the rising tide are trapped when the water goes out. It was a way of fishing that needed neither a boat nor a large net.
A jokdae is a fishing tool with a net hung between two wooden handles. In shallow water below the knee, it is pushed up as if skimming the bottom to scoop out fish. During the festival, visitors can handle both of these themselves on the beach.
Wondam fishing was not something one person's skill could manage. The village worked together to build the wall and fill in the parts that had collapsed, and shared what was taken. It is a long habit of treating the sea as part of the village household. After concrete breakwaters went up and distribution changed, wondam lost their use, and most of them remain in ruins.
When labor once done for a living moves into a three-day amusement, the original hardship is erased. Even so, a sense gone through once with the body lasts longer than an explanatory text. Anyone who has waited for the water to go out knows why a wondam has that shape.
Iho Tewoo Beach is among the beaches closest to Jeju International Airport. At the end of the breakwater on the west side of the beach stand wooden horse lighthouses in the shape of a red horse and a white horse. The wondam experience only works when the water is out, so it is better to check that day's tide times before setting out.
The festival ends on Sunday, August 2. The stone wall stays on the beach after the three days, and each of the two times a day the water goes out, shallow water gathers inside the wall. Anyone who missed the festival can go to the stone wall on the west side of the beach at the hour the water goes out.
Event information
Dates: July 31 (Fri) - August 2 (Sun), 2026
Venue: Iho Tewoo Beach, Jeju City
