May 7, 2015 • 1

Goyang Flower Festival

May 7, 2015

Last weekend we visited the Goyang Flower Festival. The flower festival is one of the few things we knew about Goyang before we moved here, and it was something I had been looking forward to. Our city slogan is “A City of People More Beautiful Than Flowers” and the area has a history of horticultural production so I think that’s how the festival got its start. It’s held every late April-early May at the Lake Park.

Before we entered the festival there were tons of tents set up with a wide range of activities from dressing up in traditional Korean clothing to learning CPR. There was also an area with flower and plant vendors so that after viewing lots of beautiful flowers you could cash in on your inspiration and take some home.

Flower vendors

We were hoping the festival would be set up more like a botanical garden but it was more or less an extravaganza with lots of staged flower scenes for photos. (Because if you didn’t take 100s of photos then it never happened.) A lot of the flower sculptures were really cool, and I did enjoy seeing lots of beautiful flowers.

A walrus

The perfect background for any occasion – a cat made out of succulents!

There was also an exhibition hall which had floral displays representing different countries around the world and vendors where you could buy flowers or plants. In front of the hall were several large floral sculptures.

In front on the hall

This cat is our city’s mascot! (Goyang means cat in Korean)

Inside the exhibition hall

A pretty boring set-up, Germany

Overall it was a nice way to spend some time but it was slightly underwhelming. Sometimes (read: most of the time) things in Korea are over-hyped and we end up expecting more. So, in this case, the festival was really nice and enjoyable but not a huge, not-to-be-missed attraction. Thankfully the weather was lovely so it was a nice afternoon to stroll among the flowers.