Get Your Hands (and everything else) Dirty at the Boryeong Mud Festival, Seoul
Published by David G. Elliott, Writer
Country: South Korea 
The Experience
Boryeong Mud Festival in Boryeong, South Korea, is a great event for foreigners, Koreans, families, and just about everybody in between. If you are wondering what the Boryeong Mud Festival is; basically the name says it all. It's a festival involving all kinds of mud activities. In addition to all the mud, this distinctive affair shares live entertainment, music, contests, exciting nightlife, and fireworks. Over this nine day, two-weekend span in mid-to late July, foreigners and Koreans descend on Daecheon Beach for the Boryeong Mud Festival in Seoul.
The Boryeong Mud Festival is a young festival that has been gaining popularity every year over its thirteen years of existence. Boryeong, about an hour or two-hour drive (depending on traffic) south of Seoul, is known in and around Korea to have mud that is very healthy for your skin. Because of this, the City of Boryeong decided to invent the Mud Festival in 1997.
For the Boryeong Mud Festival, Seoul brings mud from several areas around the city to Daecheon Beach. The mud is so accessible in this region that the festival is entirely free. As time passed, more and more Korean people began to attend the Festival, and from there, foreigners began to hear about this event. Since that moment, this Korean Mud Festival has become a staple on many people's calendars. Although there isn't a main attraction, so to speak, there are so many activities and forms of entertainment that each visitor to this festival of mud leaves with their own definition of "main attraction." Attendees are able to choose from different activities, including painting themselves and each other with mud-covered paint brushes, and trying their luck at some mud wrestling. Other incredible actives include group workouts in the mud on the beach, jumping into a mud bath, sliding down a gigantic blow up mud slide, and dancing on the beach dance floor while being sprayed by mud hoses.
After spending hours in the hot sun, exhausting yourself with the great activities, you can go for a swim in the beautiful ocean to cool off, and even clean off. The layout couldn't be any more perfect for this type of event. Once the sun has begun to set on a gorgeous, muddy summers day in Boryeong, everyone heads back to their respective hotel, motel or min-bat (a room that holds 4-6 people and has no bed but single, thin mats that you can sleep on) to shower and get ready for an entertaining evening. As people flood to the handful of streets along the beach area, restaurants begin to fill and there is a tremendous vibe in the air. Music is playing, people are everywhere and, best of all—everyone is in good spirits.
Upon the conclusion of dinner, many people head to the non-muddy area of the beach with drinks in hand waiting in anticipation for the fireworks display to begin. The fireworks are over the water and light up the beach to the crowd’s approval. From here, there are carnival-type games along some of the streets that are popular with families and young adults. Then there are also numerous bars with dance floors that fill to capacity fairly quickly. And then there is always the safe bet of heading back to your room to get a good night’s sleep and prepare to do it all over again the next day. While attending the Boryeong Mud Festival you need to make sure you let loose, socialize with as many people as possible, have an incredible time at one of the greatest and most hidden festivals in the world… and of course... GET MUDDY!!!!
Before long, word got around that this is THE festival to attend for anyone teaching or living in Korea. The Boryeong Mud Festival is certainly a unique event that will be remembered as one of the best times you had during your stay in Korea.
The Boryeong Mud Festival is a young festival that has been gaining popularity every year over its thirteen years of existence. Boryeong, about an hour or two-hour drive (depending on traffic) south of Seoul, is known in and around Korea to have mud that is very healthy for your skin. Because of this, the City of Boryeong decided to invent the Mud Festival in 1997.
For the Boryeong Mud Festival, Seoul brings mud from several areas around the city to Daecheon Beach. The mud is so accessible in this region that the festival is entirely free. As time passed, more and more Korean people began to attend the Festival, and from there, foreigners began to hear about this event. Since that moment, this Korean Mud Festival has become a staple on many people's calendars. Although there isn't a main attraction, so to speak, there are so many activities and forms of entertainment that each visitor to this festival of mud leaves with their own definition of "main attraction." Attendees are able to choose from different activities, including painting themselves and each other with mud-covered paint brushes, and trying their luck at some mud wrestling. Other incredible actives include group workouts in the mud on the beach, jumping into a mud bath, sliding down a gigantic blow up mud slide, and dancing on the beach dance floor while being sprayed by mud hoses.
After spending hours in the hot sun, exhausting yourself with the great activities, you can go for a swim in the beautiful ocean to cool off, and even clean off. The layout couldn't be any more perfect for this type of event. Once the sun has begun to set on a gorgeous, muddy summers day in Boryeong, everyone heads back to their respective hotel, motel or min-bat (a room that holds 4-6 people and has no bed but single, thin mats that you can sleep on) to shower and get ready for an entertaining evening. As people flood to the handful of streets along the beach area, restaurants begin to fill and there is a tremendous vibe in the air. Music is playing, people are everywhere and, best of all—everyone is in good spirits.
Upon the conclusion of dinner, many people head to the non-muddy area of the beach with drinks in hand waiting in anticipation for the fireworks display to begin. The fireworks are over the water and light up the beach to the crowd’s approval. From here, there are carnival-type games along some of the streets that are popular with families and young adults. Then there are also numerous bars with dance floors that fill to capacity fairly quickly. And then there is always the safe bet of heading back to your room to get a good night’s sleep and prepare to do it all over again the next day. While attending the Boryeong Mud Festival you need to make sure you let loose, socialize with as many people as possible, have an incredible time at one of the greatest and most hidden festivals in the world… and of course... GET MUDDY!!!!
Before long, word got around that this is THE festival to attend for anyone teaching or living in Korea. The Boryeong Mud Festival is certainly a unique event that will be remembered as one of the best times you had during your stay in Korea.
When to Go to Boryeong Mud Festival
Each year the festival is visited by about 80,000 international travellers. It is spread over two long weekends in July, and lasts for nine days. Activities for children are normally held in the morning at either Daecheon Beach or Namgokdong Tidal Flat Experience. The festival is free to attend.
Odds n' Ends
There are mud massage programs available, and the Mud Experiential Land program uses mud powder that undergoes a processing procedure to remove all impurities. Boryeong Mud Cosmetics products are sold locally to take home with you, and discounts of up to 30% are offered to international tourists.
Places to Stay Nearby
Search over 900,000 global hotel deals from over 30 merchants. Book via Expedia, Travelocity, Hotels.com, Booking.com, Priceline and the websites of popular hotel chains.
Discover all that Asan has to offer with Paradise Dogo Hotel as a base.The hotel features a wide range of modern facilities and services in ... 34 miles away
Discover all that Asan has to offer with Palace Hotel as a base.All 142 rooms at the hotel have all the modern facilities guests' would ... 38 miles away
+ 7 others. Show all.
More Experiences Nearby
- Quaff a Chinese Lager at the Tsingtao Beer Brewery
- Qingdao, a picturesque coastal city on China's eastern seaboard, boasts an interesting past and a groovy seaside atmosphere. Once colonized by Germans, Qingdao (sounds like "ching daow") is the venerable home of China's most iconic beer: Tsingtao. The name Tsingtao is an earlier Romanized spelling of the same Chinese word: "qing dao," which means “green island.” Although not actually an island, Qingdao is now a major seaport city, and in 2008, it hosted the Beijing Olympic Sailing competition in its scenic bay. The World of Tsingtao is the main brewery and museum of Tsingtao beer, located right in Qingdao City. ...350 miles away.
Video
Video Wall
You are now being transfered to our Video Wall
Books and DVDs
Elsewhere on the Web
- The World Renowned Boryeong Mud Festival of South Korea - VisitKorea.or.kr
- Out of all the Korean festivals that international visitors seek, the 2008 Boryeong Mud Festival has become the South Korean representative festival which the Ministry Of Culture & Tourism proudly recognizes.
- Daecheon Beach - Boryeong Mud Festival - LastMinute.com
- Boryeong's Mud Festival on Daecheon Beach brings out the child in everyone. Mud has long been considered a marvellous treatment for the skin and Koreans know this only too well, so smear yourself all over and make your skin shine.
Media References
- Good Clean Fun - Time.com (magazine)
- Sometimes the best marketing ideas take on a life of their own. Seeking to publicize the skin-care benefits of grooming products made with local mineral-rich mud, the South Korean city of Boryeong staged a small "mud festival" in 1998.
Travel Insurance. Simple & Flexible.
Discussion
Experienced this and have something to share? Experienced something like this somewhere else? Looking for advise or travel companions? Use this space to leave your mark. Our writers and editors are more than happy to help answer your questions.
People with experience
Recent Tweets
Listed below are the most recent comments made on Twitter for "boryeong mud festival":
