Hani Lavender Festival in Korea

The Hani Lavender Festival is in Goseong-Gun, Gangwon Province, about 3 hours from Seoul. And it lasts for a few weeks every June when the lavender is in full bloom.

The last time we were in the area was when we visited the Unification Observatory on the north east border with North Korea – a very different experience!

hIt’s quite a long way to Goseong from Seoul, just for the day. But we were staying nearby. And having heard that the Hani lavender festival gets pretty hectic, we arrived early – just as the doors were opening at 9am.EUROPE IN KOREA

We were confident that we’d be the first car there. Wrong! The small car park was already almost FULL. And there was quite the crowd gathering at the admission booth – it costs 4,000 won to get in.

The first thing I noticed was the purposely foreign feel to the place. The main buildings with wooden window shutters and the statues in the court yard suggested a picturesque village in Europe. Later walking around some of the smaller gardens, I could have been back in Britain.

see more from dramasrok about life in Korea on Facebook Pinterest and Instagram

WHIMSICAL LAVENDER

The first to arrive at the festival are the photographers with their huge camera lenses and tripods aiming for dreamy images involving models in fairytale frocks, straw bonnets, and quaint bicycles.

Some models hover down amongst the lavender (despite the ‘keep off’ signs!) cupping her hands around their faces as though they are flowers too.

The shop sells a selection of lavender products including a large range of whimsical bonnets. Whether you think it’s enchanting or corny, there’s clearly something about lavender that inspires this mood.

LAVENDER ICE CREAM

And the colour scheme for everything is lavender.

Even some of the visitors are in lavender. A man in a lavender t-shirt posed for a photo on the lavender painted tractor. And I wondered if he colour-coordinated his outfit for the visit? Or if it was just a happy coincidence?

The lavender ice cream stand is popular or you can sip lavender tea at lavender coloured cafe tables.

The festival programme also offers lavender pizza-making classes and signs advertise lavender bingsu, shaved ice dessert! (read more about bingsu here)

Like the green tea festival, if you like people watching, it’s a great place to be. By the time we left there were over 20 tourist coaches parked along the road stretching as far as I could see. And cars everywhere too.

The tourist buses keep coming bringing groups of visitors and a mix of all ages from trendy youngsters in denim shorts to the middle-aged and above in their signature mountain climbing gear! But everyone has something in common – a keen focus on getting their photos just right.

This is the Instagramer’s heaven! Yes, I put some pics up on Instagram too!