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Gumi Ramyeon Festival 2026: Fresh Noodles, Dates and Getting There

Spicy Korean seafood ramyeon with shrimp and bean sprouts

Every November, a city best known for TV and phone factories turns its train station into one long noodle bar. The city is Gumi. Three hours or so from Seoul on a regular train. The party is called the Gumi Ramyeon Festival, and in 2026 it's on from Friday, November 6 through Sunday the 8th.

Before we get to the festival, a small confession. I honestly don't know whether ramyeon started in Japan or in China. There are a few theories and I'm not going to pretend to settle them. The bagged instant kind is easier. That one is Japanese, no argument: Momofuku Ando put Nissin Chicken Ramen on sale in 1958. Korea took the idea and made its own. Samyang Ramyun came out on September 15, 1963, built with technology from Japan's Myojo Foods.

Quick facts

  • Fri Nov 6 to Sun Nov 8, 2026, around Gumi Station
  • Free entry; you pay for the food
  • Restaurant street: Fri 11-9, Sat 10-9, Sun 10-7
  • KTX stops at Gimcheon(Gumi), not Gumi Station
  • Regular trains from Seoul Station take about three hours

Koreans and the packet

I would have bet money that Koreans eat more packaged ramyeon than anyone on earth. I'd have lost, barely. Vietnam beat us. Per the World Instant Noodles Association (yes, that exists), Vietnam ate 81 servings a head in 2024 and we managed 79.2. Add it all up and it's 4.1 billion servings, in a country of about 52 million people. So, roughly one and a half packs a week each, babies included.

And it isn't only us anymore. The spicy ones travel well. Samyang's Buldak, the fire chicken noodles people film themselves crying over, is the famous one, but plenty of others ride along. Customs data says we shipped a record $1.52 billion worth of ramyeon abroad in 2025.

Why Gumi, of all places

Short answer: the factory. Nongshim (the Shin Ramyun company) opened a plant in Gumi's electronics industrial complex in the early 1990s, and it grew into Korea's biggest ramyeon factory. Korean press reports put it at about 6 million packs a day, with roughly 80 percent of the Shin Ramyun sold in Korea and about 90 percent of Chapagetti coming off its lines.

The festival itself started in 2022 with a pretty funny pitch from a city employee. Sell ramyeon that left the frying line only two or three days ago. Fresh, like bread. Koreans call it gat twigin ramyeon, "just-fried ramyeon." Does a two-day-old packet really taste different from a two-month-old one? People argue about it. But the idea worked better than anyone expected.

About 10,000 people came the first year. Then 170,000 in 2024. Then roughly 350,000 in 2025, which is close to the city's whole population of about 420,000. Last year's setup was a 475-meter (1,558-foot) food street billed as the world's longest ramyeon restaurant. Visitors bought 480,000 packs of fresh ramyeon over three days, and the line for those packs ran past one kilometer (about 0.6 miles). The street sold some 54,000 bowls of 25 different ramyeon dishes.

What you actually do there

You eat, mostly. The festival fills the streets around Gumi Station, Yeokjeon-ro, Munhwa-ro, Geumridan-gil and Saemaeul Central Market. Entry is free (the city runs it), and you pay for the food.

Tap a marker for a short note, or open the map in Google Maps. Positions are approximate.

The main event is the Ramyeon Restaurant street. This year's menu has sections called banttinng ramyeon (banttinng is slang for going halves), unusual ramyeon, premium and overseas noodles, and ramyeon trucks. Watch the hours on that street, because they shift by day. Friday it opens at 11 and goes till 9 at night. Saturday, 10 till 9. Sunday, 10 till 7. Sunday closes early. Easy to miss if you plan a lazy Sunday dinner there.

There's a soup lab and self-cooking zone where you mix your own soup powder blend (a great way to learn you don't know how much seasoning is enough). There's a park lounge to sit and eat. On stage, a concert called Sing To You is set for Friday at 6:30 p.m. and the live Ssaeng-ramyeon Stage for Saturday at 7 p.m. "Ssaeng-ramyeon" means raw, uncooked noodles, which plenty of Korean kids snack on straight from the bag.

The fresh packs are sold at a booth called Gat Land. Ordering by QR code came in last year to cut the waiting. My two cents, based on those numbers: get the packs first, eat second. That's where the long line was. And bring a bag. A few packs weigh nothing. Twenty don't fit in your arms.

Getting there without the KTX mistake

This is the part most English guides skip, and it's the one that can wreck your day. The KTX does not stop at Gumi Station.

The KTX stop is called Gimcheon(Gumi) Station, and it's in the next city over, Gimcheon. The festival's own FAQ from last year says a limousine bus runs from there to downtown Gumi every 30 to 40 minutes for 3,200 won. Doable. But the name trips people up, especially when they're booking in a hurry.

What I'd do from Seoul: skip the KTX and take a plain old train that actually stops in Gumi. The ITX-Saemaeul, ITX-Maum and Mugunghwa all leave from Seoul Station and pull into Gumi Station about three hours later (2 hours 51 minutes on the quickest one I found). Slower on paper than KTX, sure. But no transfer, and you step out right at the festival.

Coming from Daegu? The Daegyeong Line commuter train, open since December 2024, runs into Gumi Station. During last year's festival 33,970 people got on or off that line at Gumi Station in three days, so expect it to be packed in the evening.

New this year, there's also a Kakao T Shuttle bus that goes straight to the festival from Sadang, Seoul Station and Jamsil in Seoul, plus Daejeon, Daegu, Busan and Gwangju. You book it inside the Kakao T app: All services, then Shuttle, then the Local festival tab, then Gumi Ramyeon Festival. Set the app up with a card that works before you leave home. For visitors that can take a few tries.

Worth the trip?

Honestly? Riding down from Seoul to Gumi just for ramyeon is a stretch. But I have to give the city credit. For a local government festival, it turned into a real success, and more people hear about it every year.

If you're a true ramyeon maniac, go. I mean it. I like ramyeon too, but I'm not planning to make the trip myself. Six hours on a train, round trip, for noodles. Not for me. Maybe for you!

Official info

Dates, prices and hours change, so check before you go (details as of 2026-10-16).

More from this blog

So which packet is yours? And would you get on that train?

Top photo: a bowl of spicy seafood ramyeon in Korea. Photo: Ryoo Geon Uk / Unsplash

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