Kim Sat-gat Culture Festival

The Kim Sat-gat Culture Festival is held in Yeongwol to honor the life and literary value of Nango Kim Byeong-yeon (Kim Sat-gat), the wandering poet of late Joseon. Wearing a satgat bamboo hat, Kim Sat-gat roamed the country satirizing the authority and hypocrisy of the society of his day and expressing the lives and sorrows of ordinary people with humor. Begun in 1998, the festival is held each autumn around the historic sites in Kimsatgat-myeon, Yeongwol-gun, where his tomb, his dwelling and the Nango Kim Sat-gat Literature Museum are located. The main programs comprise a memorial rite for the poet, the Kim Sat-gat Literature Award ceremony, national writing and calligraphy contests, a Joseon-era state examination reenactment and literary academic events. Alongside these, performances, exhibitions and hands-on programs run on the themes of his wandering, his humor and his free spirit. The festival aims to cast light on his life and literary legacy and to carry the satire and humor in his poetry into the present.