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Daejeon to celebrate bread culture at annual Bakery Festival

Published: 16 Oct. 2025, 16:36

A photo from the Daejeon Bakery Festival in 2024 [DAEJEON TOURISM ORGANIZATION]

DAEJEON — Daejeon, home to the famed bakery Sungsimdang, will host a festival celebrating bread this weekend, further cementing its reputation as Korea’s “city of bread.”

The Daejeon Tourism Organization said on Thursday that the 2025 Daejeon Bakery Festival will take place Saturday and Sunday along Soje-dong Cafe Street and Daedong Stream in Daejeon. The annual event, now in its fifth year, is sponsored by the Daejeon Metropolitan Government, the Dong District Office, the Korea Bakery Association’s Daejeon Chapter and Sungsimdang.

This year’s festival features a 10-meter-long (32-foot-long) roll cake cutting performance and an event where 102 local bakeries will sell a wide variety of breads.

Other events include the Bakery 100 Gallery, showcasing signature creations from participating bakeries, a local small business flea market and baking workshops run in collaboration with local universities.

Music performances from a brass band, a cappella group and local artists are also planned.

The festival site will be twice as large as last year, with 102 bakeries participating, compared to 81 in 2024. Well-known local bakeries such as Sungsimdang, Ppang hanmogeum, Yeoniga Bake Shop, Hare Hare and Dasori Bakery will take part.

The festival will run from noon to 9 p.m., with an opening ceremony scheduled for 6 p.m. on Saturday. The Daejeon Tourism Organization expects around 150,000 visitors this year. Attendance grew from 15,000 in the festival’s first year in 2021 to 140,000 in 2024.

People line up to choose bread at the main branch of Sungsimdang on Oct. 22, 2024. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Visitors have shared their experiences widely on social media.

One post on X said it took three hours just to enter the venue after arriving at Daejeon Station on the festival’s first day in a previous edition. A food YouTuber wrote that they lined up five hours before opening but still could not buy bread from their desired bakery.

The city launched the festival to revitalize businesses in Daejeon’s old downtown, where Sungsimdang and other well-known bakeries are located.

Daejeon developed a strong bread-making culture during and after the Korean War (1950-53), when U.S. relief flour was distributed as part of food aid. Daejeon Station, located at the intersection of Korea’s main north–south and southwest railway lines, became a key hub for distributing the relief flour, which helped the city develop a thriving bakery culture.

The city had 849 operating bakeries as of the end of 2023, or about 5.9 per 10,000 residents, the third-highest concentration in Korea after Seoul and Daegu, according to the Daejeon Sejong Research Institute.

Sungsimdang itself was born out of this history. Founder Lim Gil-soon began baking with two sacks of flour distributed by U.S. soldiers in 1956 after fleeing from North Korea aboard the SS Meredith Victory, a 7,000-ton U.S. cargo ship, during the Hungnam evacuation in December 1950. His son, Lim Young-jin, now runs the bakery.

Sungsimdang helped bring national fame to the Daejeon Bakery Festival. The bakery gained international attention in 2014 when its ciabatta and baguette were served for breakfast to Pope Francis during his visit to Korea. Today, travelers often stop in Daejeon by KTX just to buy Sungsimdang bread.

“Visitors who come for Sungsimdang are also spending time at nearby bakeries and restaurants,” said Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo. “We plan to create more events centered on bread to strengthen Daejeon’s identity as a culinary destination.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM BANG-HYUN [[email protected]]