Review of the Korea Festival 2025 at Federation Square, Melbourne held 24-25 May. Dazzling Korean entertainment and culture brought a fun, flavourful weekend festival. The crowds were in full force, the sun shone and people came to play! Simply superb.
What can I say except that this is a superb festival celebrating Korean culture and all that it adds to Australia. We only came for the 2nd day and the place was buzzing with a capital B. The Korean wave is real and based on the crowd it's really reaching a global audience.
Okay you had to queue to get some food but I'd much rather visit a festival that is literally pumping that go to a so so festival. Plenty of your Korean favourites such as Korean fried chicken, tteokbokki, japchae, corn dogs, kimbap, tteok, mochi, korean seafood or kimchi pancakes as well as the not so Korean potato swirls on a stick. Anyway, heaps on offer as long as you can stomach the crowds.
Squid Game: Whoever decided to get Netflix and the Squid Game tie-in to the festival was genius. The crowds just loved participating in this although being the crowd pleaser that it was the rules definitely weren't enforced to the fullest with apparent running typical throughout.
Anyway, the long queues to participate and the huge smiles whether being eliminated or crossing the finish line triumphantly meant the Squid Games was a monumental success!
There was huge range of entertainment from Hanbok try-on, a host of stalls, Taekwondo, cooking lesson, K singing, K dancing, Korean puppet show, the monumental Squid Games arena, LED performance and of course K-Pop.
All the entertainment went down a treat with the Taekwondo really well received, the K singing proving popular and the K dancing a step up again.
Even if you think you have no interest in Korean culture we suggest you visit next year - you just might enjoy yourself!
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