Daegu Chimac Festival Named 2026 Preliminary Global Festival, Secures 250 Million Won Funding
The Daegu Chimac Festival, Daegu’s flagship cultural event, has been named a 2026 Preliminary Global Festival and will receive an additional 250 million won in national funding, the city government said.
The designation follows the festival’s inclusion in the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s 2026-27 Cultural Tourism Festivals and 2026-27 Local 100 programs. The ministry selects three Global Festivals and four Candidate Global Festivals from 45 candidates after expert written reviews, overseas awareness surveys, and presentation evaluations.
Daegu City plans to work with the Ministry and the Korea Tourism Organization to formulate inbound tourism strategies, develop experiential content for international visitors, upgrade systems to accommodate foreign tourists, and build a network linking global festivals for international exchange and publicity.
The festival began in 2013, aligning with Daegu’s hot summer and leveraging the region’s beer and robust chicken industry. Built around chicken—one of Korea’s widely recognized K-food staples—the event now attracts more than a million visitors and is a major driver of Daegu’s local economy.
Park Ki-hwan, head of Daegu City’s Economic Bureau, said the Preliminary Global Festival designation acknowledges the festival’s competitiveness and growth potential, and that the city will continue to expand diverse content and strengthen global promotion to make it a leading national festival on the world stage.
For U.S. readers, the development illustrates Korea’s broader push to market Korean food and culture internationally and to grow tourism-driven economies. The government’s approach, through the Ministry and the Korea Tourism Organization, signals potential opportunities for international travel, supplier networks, and cross-border collaboration tied to major regional events.
Daegu lies in southeastern South Korea and is one of the country’s larger metropolitan centers. The Chimac Festival’s rise toward global status reflects Korea’s strategy of elevating regional events to compete in global tourism and cultural markets.