Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
As winters warm, Korea’s famed ice festivals face uncertain future
An aerial view of the Amsan Ice Festival in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province / Courtesy of Andong City
By Lee Hae-rin
Climate shifts disrupt winter festivals, putting fragile rural economies at risk
Korea’s best-known winter festivals are struggling to adapt to an increasingly unreliable cold season, with climate change unsettling the ice, snow and fishing conditions that once defined them.
In North Gyeongsang Province, the city of Andong canceled the Amsan Ice Festival just 10 days before its scheduled opening on Jan. 17, after ice at the riverside venue failed to reach the minimum 25 centimeters required for safe sledding, skating and ice fishing. The festival, which typically draws about 300,000 visitors, was called off for the second time in three years because of poor ice conditions.
Festivals in Gangwon Province have been dealing with similar setbacks.
Inje County scrapped its signature smelt ice fishing festival on the Soyang River for a third consecutive year, after an unusually rainy autumn raised dam reservoir levels and repeated warm spells prevented the ice from forming properly, with flooding in parts of the planned venue.
Nearby Pyeongchang postponed the opening of its trout festival from Jan. 1 to Jan. 9 and shortened its planned 40-day run by about 10 days after ice failed to form as expected on Odae Stream. Organizers said they are checking the thickness of the ice daily and halting fishing whenever it falls below safety standards.
International visitors pose while ice fishing at the Pyeongchang Trout Festival in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, Jan. 26, 2025. Newsis
But it is not only the ice that is disappearing.
Off the southern coast, rising water temperatures have delayed the migration of cod, a cold-water species that underpins the Codfish Festival in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province. Once held in December, the event was pushed back nearly a month to Jan. 10 and 11, squeezing in just before a seasonal fishing ban takes effect and leaving fishermen and local officials bracing for a smaller catch than usual.
Park Gong-jin, a veteran fisherman with two decades of experience harvesting cod, said fish that once arrived by late November are now appearing only around January. This has led to calls for festival schedules and fishing closure rules to be pushed back by at least two weeks to reflect the new reality.
These regional winter festivals play a huge role in sustaining rural economies, already grappling with population decline and aging, especially in Gangwon Province and inland counties. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism says that nature-based events dependent on local ecosystems account for about 40 percent of the country’s 1,209 registered festivals, many of them staged during the tourism off-season.
Organizers said that when ice fishing sites close or key programs are canceled on short notice, it also has a negative impact on nearby hotels, restaurants and small vendors, cutting into seasonal income in communities already losing residents.
Landmark winter festivals overseas are grappling with similar problems.
In Sapporo, northern Japan, officials and sculptors behind the city’s snow festival say increasingly erratic snowfall, along with warm spells reaching 5 to 6 degrees Celsius that have begun melting large sculptures mid-production, is forcing organizers to haul in snow from afar and reconsider how many major installations they can sustain. In China, the Harbin Ice and Snow World, famed for its illuminated ice palaces, has in recent years ended its season early as above-normal temperatures and strong winds hastened the thaw.
Organizers carve massive snow sculptures along Hwacheon Stream, Tuesday as preparations ramp up for the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival’s opening on Jan. 10 in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province. Yonhap
Experts say that communities must treat climate change as a baseline condition, not an occasional event, and rebuild winter tourism around four-season attractions that draw on culture as much as nature.
"We need to move away from winter festivals and tourism contents that depend solely on natural conditions, and work to reframe established festival brands by linking them with local culture," Yu Young-sim, a research fellow at the Gangwon Institute said.
Son Shin-uk, an associate research fellow at the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, pointed to the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival as an example of how programs can evolve.
"The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival has introduced a Santa village program alongside ice fishing, expanding content that visitors can enjoy regardless of the weather," Son said. "Developing alternative programs that reflect the local identity is the way to enhance the long-term sustainability of regional programs," he noted.