Lee Ji-hye struggles to order food at Gimcheon Gimbap Festival

Broadcaster Lee Ji-hye faced difficulties ordering food at the Gimcheon Gimbap Festival after 390,000 people flocked to the site over three days. The massive crowds caused mobile phone services to become unstable, preventing Lee from using the digital ordering system.

Broadcaster Lee Ji-hye was stunned by the explosive popularity of the Gimcheon Gimbap Festival. While visiting the festival grounds to taste gimbap, the crowds were so much larger than expected that mobile phone services ceased to function properly. As she became unable to even place an order, Lee expressed her frustration, asking, “What happened to Gimcheon?” while conveying the intense heat of the scene.

On the 5th, a video titled "Honest Review of the Trending 'Gimcheon Gimbap Festival' with 390,000 People in 3 Days (Top 3 Restaurants) by Lee Ji-hye" was released on the YouTube channel Mipji Aneun Gwanjong Eonni. The video captures Lee Ji-hye and her husband Moon Jae-wan visiting the recently trending Gimcheon Gimbap Festival to tour the site and taste various types of gimbap.

Upon arriving at the festival grounds, Lee Ji-hye first scanned a QR code to begin the gimbap ordering process. However, contrary to her expectations of a smooth process, the site was already swarming with numerous visitors. As people flocked to the area all at once, mobile connections became unstable, making it difficult even to access the ordering system.

The scale of the festival's popularity was even more evident during the ordering process. With mobile phones effectively rendered useless, Lee Ji-hye struggled as she was unable to order the gimbap she wanted. Observing this, the production crew described the crowd as being "like a GD concert," implying that the scale of people gathered was so intense it resembled a large-scale concert rather than a local festival.

When she ultimately could not complete an order, Lee reacted with dissatisfaction, saying, “It won't go in. What happened to Gimcheon?” Her reaction, raising her voice in frustration, elicited laughter. Although she visited with the simple goal of eating gimbap, she encountered unexpected obstacles starting from the ordering stage.

Without giving up, Lee moved to a kiosk as soon as she found one to attempt ordering again. She tried to overcome the issue that could not be resolved via mobile phone, but the congestion at the festival site offered little relief. As she faced a difficult process just to taste the gimbap, Lee offered a realistic reaction.

She expressed regret, saying, “Maybe I should have just ordered various things to eat at home,” suggesting she should have opted for food delivery instead. It was a candid complaint following her plan to visit the festival to enjoy the atmosphere, which instead turned into unexpected hardship.

A citizen overhearing this responded wittily, “The intention is to participate.” The scene became even more pleasant following the citizen's joke, implying that simply eating gimbap comfortably is not the only way to participate in the festival. Lee Ji-hye also conveyed the special atmosphere of the festival while encountering the unexpected remark from the citizen.

This video goes beyond simply introducing good gimbap restaurants, vividly showing the heat of the Gimcheon Gimbap Festival, which attracted hundreds of thousands of people in a short period. While the mobile connection failures and ordering congestion caused inconvenience to visitors, it also revealed the intense interest concentrated on the festival. Lee Ji-hye's honest reactions to struggling with unexpected crowds while trying to taste gimbap have emerged as another highlight of the video.

Read the original (Korean)