In most parts of the world, summer means beach. White beach. And blue waters. But in Boryeong, 200 kilometers south of Seoul, summer means mud, the biggest mud festival there ever is in Asia.
Mud madness this year starts on July 19 and concludes on July 28.
It’s a Mud World Out There
A country can’t grow much in a vast expanse of mud. Instead of pushing for agriculture that might not be as lucrative, enterprising South Koreans thought of marketing mud cosmetics and making them more appetizing especially to Western residents who work in South Korea. The result is one big mud festival that is the most internally attended of South Korea’s biggest festivals.
The festival kicks off on the third week of July, but it is during the final weekend that the “mud-ness” reaches a frenzied peak.
The two-week-long festivities open with a good helping of mud dancing and percussion and extravagant fireworks. Truckloads of Boryeong mud are dug from the mud flats and dumped into the Daecheon Beach, a 10-kilometer-long tidal flat on the west coast of Boryeong which becomes the “Mud Experience Land” for these two weeks in summer. But it’s not just all mud, as the Daecheon Beach is just as excellent and, unlike the mud, clean for swimming.
Much Ado About Mud
There are plenty of activities that go beyond wallowing in mud pools and pulling a solitary mud self-massage. Certainly, a lot of other activities are more physical than mud marathons.
Mud slides are made for all ages, while mud wrestling events are geared for the more adventurous. The artistic can join colored mud body painting contest, while the architecturally creative can put up mud creations for the sculpture contest.
For the really intrepid, there are mud skiing competitions, Mudflat obstacle relays, and mud futsal. Of course, the children are not left out, and are installed their own Kid’s mud land. There’s also a mud prison for those who want to serve (mock) jail time.
A mud fountain is also erected for those seeking eternal youth. After all, that’s what facials and body wraps are for, and here, you can get them all for free and for as often as you like in the stretch of two weeks.
Boryeong Mud Festival, despite its moniker, offers good clean fun. Certainly, beach parties and loud music go on all day and night, but there is practically fun for everyone. Street parades, cultural performances, concerts and fantastic fireworks display round up the festivities and make for entertaining digressions if mud starts to look drab and gray.
History of Boryeong Mud Festival
Attracting more than 2 million international visitors a year, the Boryeong Mud Festival is to South Korea as La Tomatina is to Spain. Both are opportunities to make a mess of oneself and suspend reasonable thought for a moment to simply just have fun. But unlike the La Tomatina Festival (which just spontaneously rose out of a vegetable-throwing incident), the Boryeong Mud Festival arose from a necessity to market Boryeong mud cosmetics that are said to contain essential minerals for better skin health.
Indeed, a large assortment of mud products are sold at the festival: mud body cleansers, mud packs, shampoos, sun block lotion, cleansing cream are packaged for retail consumption. They don’t come cheap, however, so if you want to get all the benefits of Boryeong mud and then some, get down and dirty and pack away a good helping for use at home if you don’t mind to pay extra luggage.
For the Boryeong Mud Festival video:
Here’s how festival revelers get wet, wild and dirty!
