Good Clean Fun at the Mud Festival

The Boryeong Mud Festival is one of the most popular festivals for foreigners in South Korea. Last year, around 44,000 foreigners attended the Boryeong Mud Festival out of the 1.72 million Koreans during the week long fiesta in July. This year, I had to be a part of it.

Sunday morning, my roommates and I hopped on a 3 hour bus to indulge in some summer fun. Daechon Beach was packed with young crazies covered in mud. I would have loved to see the mud-caked Korean girls juxtaposed to the primed & primped Korean women that I see everyday on the streets of Gangnam. But that would never happen, because if it did, the two would certainly bump into each other in passing in true Korean style, and the dirty one would accidentally soil the pretty one's feminine outfit.

The music was thumping on my left side. To the right was the mud painting station. Time to dig in!

\We lathered our bodies in Boryeong's famous mineral-rich mud, which is said to prevent aging and purify the skin. We painted our bodies a cement grey-brown color. Then we painted our skin pink, then blue. The mud contains far-infrared rays that activate water molecules in the body, which then eliminates toxins and fats from the bloodstream and removes waste. We hoped our skin would be soon be revitalized, or at least come out a bit softer.

Throughout the afternoon, we witnessed a number of toddler-inspired mud activities: an inflatable mud obstacle course, a mega mud tub, a mud super slide, and even a mud prison (Unfortunately, we had missed the marine mud marathon and the Miss Mud beauty pageant)!!!

But, it was the mud wrestling that did us in:







Best of all, it was all free!

The day ended with a well-needed rinse at the Boryeong Mud Skin Care center. Two thousand Won ($2) bought me a cycle through one of Daecheon's best stops: a shower, a soak in warm salt water, a trip to the steam room, a dip in cold water, another coating of fresh mud, and a final cleanse at the shower. Voila!