12th Annual Boryeong Mud Festival

Boryeong; Dacheon Beach is an area about 3 hours south of Seoul. The city is famous for it’s beaches and mud products. It is a small town who’s entire income come from visitors and the sale of mud products.

The first Mud Festival was held in 1998 with the intention of informing people of the mud products and increasing traffic through the city. The original festival was only 4 days long and attracted a few thousand people. In the next few years the festival was continually expanded and continued to grow in popularity among tourists and foreigners. Over 90% of the thousands of visitors are tourists/foreigners. This year was the 12th annual Mud Festival and was held for a total of two weeks.

For our particular Mud Fest trip; Jen, Allison, Krysta, and I boarded a late night bus with quite a few other foreigners. There were a total of 8 or so buses, and maybe only 8 or so Koreans – it was a strange experience to be surrounded by so many foreigners. Our ride was a lot of fun because the bus came fully equipped with KARAOKE! All of the passengers took turns standing in the bus aisle singing ridiculous songs. (of course we were riding with special beverages so it was a pretty fun ride). We got to Boryeong at about 3 a.m. and went straight to our hotel. Six of us stayed in a pretty small room, but we made it work.




When we woke up Saturday morning we all donned swim suits and crummy clothes. We had Soju and Champagne for breakfast. The streets were lined with thousands of foreigners….many were already drunk and muddy when we got started. It was all slightly overwhelming. There was mud wresting, mud pools, mud slides, mud games, mud painting, mud massages, etc. The beach was also lined with foreigners. We roamed all over the grounds and got ourselves good and muddy.




We also played with the “colored mud” – which was a special powder mixed with water. Foreigners took turns painting their friends and strangers.




Unfortunately it began to rain early in the day. It put a damper on many of the festivities, but most people refused to let it ruin their weekend. People were walking with and without umbrellas; still in swim suits and covered in mud. We watched a fireworks show and of course continued to consume a few beverages.

We woke up early Sunday morning hoping to partake in the festivities again, but it was cold, windy, and rainy. The 5 of us decided to go to a café and just hang out. We left Sunday afternoon and had a much less eventful ride home.

It was an experience every foreigner in Korea is supposed to have – I’ve done my duty.