DAEJEON — The 2026 Daejeon Bread Festival, offering a wide range of local breads along with exhibitions and performances, will be held across the Expo Science Park area.
The Daejeon city government said on the 15th that the festival will run for two days, Oct. 17-18, with 120 local bakeries taking part.
Participating bakeries will showcase signature items reflecting their own styles, and the festival will offer exhibitions, hands-on activities and performances built around bread for residents and visitors.
The festival opens at 6 p.m. on the 17th with a ceremony in which visitors help cut a 15-meter roll cake, followed by a celebratory performance.
Visitors can find bakeries from across Daejeon gathered at the "Bread Station," which is divided into five zones labeled A through E to help visitors locate the bakeries they want. Signature items will be sold at discounts of at least 5% off in-store prices.
The "Bread Gallery" will present the brand stories, signature items and store information of all 120 participating bakeries. The city expects the gallery to serve as a guide for bakery-hopping tours, encouraging visitors to stop by the stores themselves after the festival.
The festival also adds hands-on baking to the tasting. The "Bakery Lab" will offer confectionery and baking activities, including cookie-making run with local universities. "Special Class" sessions will feature science-themed programs: fresh-fruit cake and shakerato making on the first day, and a conglomerate-cookie excavation activity and a coffee extraction experiment on the second. At the "Bread Imagination Workshop," visitors can make Kkumdori keycaps shaped like the local mascot eating bread and decorate bread-shaped mood lamps.
Participatory programs abound. On the main stage, the "Bread Fun Olympics" will offer games such as bread-tower stacking and bread-picture guessing for families. Visitors who present a bread purchase receipt can also join games including bread drop, oven timer, bread touch and bread basketball.
"Bread Busking" featuring local artists, fringe cultural performances and the Daejeon Blues songwriting contest will take place across the festival grounds. A photo zone featuring Kkumssi Family, Daejeon's official characters, and a flea market will also operate. At the flea market, local creators will present crafts and design goods based on the Kkumssi Family characters.
The city will set up eating areas and rest spots so visitors can enjoy the festival comfortably, including designated rest areas for families with infants and for older adults. It also plans to provide a companion service in which dedicated staff accompany visitors and help with information, as well as Braille leaflets, to improve access for visitors with disabilities.
To ease transportation, the city has secured 3,600 parking spaces at eight locations near the venue and will run shuttle buses for those using public transit. Shuttles between Government Complex Station and the venue will run every 15 minutes, while the route linking Daejeon Station's East Plaza to the venue will run hourly. Additional Tashu public bicycles will be stationed at Exit 4 of Government Complex Station.
Other cultural events are also on offer. The 2026 Daejeon Content Fair, with 127 content companies participating, will be held at Exhibition Hall 2 of the Daejeon Convention Center from Oct. 16 to 18. The Daejeon Esports Stadium will host the PUBG Mobile Pro Series 2026 Season 2 Finals on the 17th and 18th.
The 10th Safe Daejeon Safety Experience Festival will run in the Expo Citizens' Plaza area on the 16th and 17th, and a ceremony declaring Daejeon's hosting of the Invictus Games 2029 will be held on the 17th at the circular lawn plaza of Hanbat Arboretum. On Expo Bridge, nighttime activities and busking performances tied to the 2026 Delight Expo Bridge project will offer attractions from daytime into the night.
"I hope visitors will enjoy delicious bread as well as a rich lineup of cultural events at this year's expanded bread festival," Daejeon Mayor Huh Tae-jung said.
The 2026 Daejeon Bread Festival runs from Oct. 17 to 18, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. each day.