A hot spot to see other foreigners, the Boryeong Mud Festival in South Korea has attracted tourists for years. Originally used as a campaign to promote the cosmetics that come from the Boryeong mud, the festival has grown into a two week extravaganza of mud, mud slides, mud wrestling, and mud obstacle courses.
Background Info
Located south of Seoul, the town of Boryeong is famous for its “healing” mud. The mud is said to have natural minerals that promote healthy skin and since 1996, it has been integrated into cosmetics and skincare products.
To promote their mud, the town of Boryeong decided to have a mud festival for two weeks every summer. The festival is often sponsored by a beer company, and free beer was provided to those willing to wait in line.
The Boryeong Mud Festival
First, you pay to enter and get a wristband. Upon entering, there are “cages” you can go in with your friends and get mud thrown at you. It sounds weird, but being the only person not covered head to toe in mud would be weirder.
Then head to the slides, you’ll end up in a giant mud pit!
My group chose to play mud soccer first, where we succeeded in slipping and falling more than actually making a goal. Next was the mud wrestling arenas where aggression kicks in and all bets are off. After that, obstacles courses and tug of war arenas!
I, of course, became way too competitive and was probably too aggressive. I say this because about 20 phones at a time were on me – the giant foreigner throwing people sideways through the mud into bouncy walls so she could win.
As the festival is becoming more and more popular with tourists, here are a few things you can do to ensure you make the most of your time.
- Take your cellphone but put it in a protective case. The pictures are worth it but damaging your phone is not.
- Those who wear contacts need to protect their eyes at all times. Believe me, getting mud in your eye will cause the rest of your time there to be painful.
- Most Korean people there will wear shorts and a t-shirt. Foreign men will not wear shirts and some women will wear bikini tops. If you don’t want to stand out, wear what the Koreans wear. I chose to wear a sports bra and a bikini bottom and I was 100% the only person wearing bikini bottoms and I got some looks because of it.
- Get a locker for your stuff. It’s located to the right of the festival enclosure near the beach and isn’t that expensive.
- Buy some of the cosmetics they have! They will be slightly overpriced but they are great gifts for friends and family back home. Or, get yourself a t-shirt to remember your time by.
- The mud is watery and very silky feeling. It doesn’t hurt to get hit by it and it dried very quickly – so the best pictures to be taken are when the mud is wet.
- The ocean is a good place to wade in and wash a good amount of the mud off before you head to the showers (which are very crowded).
- Sometimes, and this is true everywhere in South Korea, locals will ask to take photos with or of you. I was asked at the festival after I had washed off most of the mud in the ocean. Originally I was so confused why they would want a picture of a half muddy foreigner when there were so many others around me. Then I realized it was probably because of my height and the fact that I wore bikini bottoms.
The beach has a large stage where singers and dancers perform, but you can also see dancing in the festival itself. And although I didn’t stay long enough to see them, I was told that fireworks conclude the night.
Conclusion
The Boryeong Mud Festival is a relatively small, but fun festival. It’s one of the only places where you’ll see a high number of foreigners mixing in with the native Koreans. The atmosphere is hyped but the attitude is relaxed, with the many restrictions you feel as a foreigner in Korea melted away.
If you happen to be in Korea for the summer, I highly recommend looking into it!
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