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Bringing Garden Culture into Everyday Life… Busan Metropolitan City to Hold 2026 Busan Garden Show “Big Palm Garden” Competition

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Busan Metropolitan City, led by Mayor Chun Jae-soo, is now accepting entries for the 2026 Busan Garden Show “Big Palm Garden” Competition to foster garden culture in everyday life and discover works that combine creativity with high-quality garden artistry.

The city announced the competition on August 3 and has provided guidance so that residents interested in participating would have sufficient time to develop and prepare their ideas. The official application period will begin on August 18, inviting a wide range of creative ideas from residents.

This year’s competition will be held under the theme “A Life with Gardens, Stories Connected by Gardens.” Through the competition, the city seeks creative garden designs that reflect the individual lives of participants and convey messages of comfort and hope to visitors through gardens.

Any Busan resident interested in garden creation and culture may enter without restriction, and the competition is expected to contribute significantly to expanding garden culture in everyday life.

A total of 10 gardens will be created, with each allocated an area of 12 square meters (4 m × 3 m). Each of the 10 teams selected through document screening will receive KRW 1.2 million in financial support, along with a basic garden site, including a frame and soil, to facilitate construction.

Entries will be accepted from 9:00 a.m. on August 18 through 6:00 p.m. on September 2. Residents wishing to participate must complete the application form, design proposal, and other supporting documents posted in the city’s public notices at https://www.busan.go.kr/nbgosi/view?sno=78962&gosiGbn=A and submit them to the designated email address, 2026busan_garden@naver.com.

Applicants should note that submissions may be excluded from consideration if required documents are missing or if any grounds for disqualification are identified.

To ensure fairness, submitted entries will undergo a rigorous two-stage evaluation process: first-round document screening to select 10 entries, followed by a second-round on-site evaluation to determine the final rankings. The final awards ceremony will be held at 11:00 a.m. on October 15 on the opening ceremony stage of the Busan Garden Show.

During the first-round document screening, which will take place from September 7 to 14, an evaluation panel consisting of four to eight relevant experts, including members of the Garden Show Preparatory Committee, will comprehensively assess the originality, aesthetic quality, completeness, and practical feasibility of each design and select the top 10 entries. The first-round results will be individually announced on September 18.

The 10 teams that pass the first-round screening will gather at designated locations near the stage of the Busan Garden Show venue within Nakdong River Garden on October 13 and install their gardens themselves from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. At 4:00 p.m. that day, the completed gardens will undergo an in-depth second-round on-site evaluation, which will determine the final rankings in each award category.

A total of KRW 3 million in prize money will be awarded to 10 entries, including KRW 1 million for the Grand Prize and KRW 800,000 for the Excellence Award. The completed award-winning gardens will be displayed for visitors throughout the Busan Garden Show.

Kim Chang-deok, Director-General of the Green City Bureau of Busan Metropolitan City, said, “We expect the Big Palm Garden Competition to provide a meaningful opportunity for residents to showcase their creative garden artistry and to help spread garden culture throughout everyday life.”

He added, “We encourage broad participation so that many fresh and original garden works will be submitted when applications open on August 18.”