Boryeong Mud Festival

I've never felt more like a kid than the time I had this past weekend in Boryeong, South Korea. It was the venue for the Boryeong Mud Festival which is held every July just a couple hours south of me. On the Daecheon Beaches lies this towns greatest export... Mud. Boryeong mud is rich in minerals and good for one’s skin. The high quality sea mud is famous enough to make mud cosmetic products such as mud packs, mud soaps, etc. It's rich in Germanium and other minerals known for their skin revitalizing properties. The festival was originally started with intentions to promote cosmetics manufactured from local mud but the popularity of the festival skyrocketed because of the fun that all the mud activities involve.The festival is one of the most popular events for the expatriate (foreign teachers) community in Korea. It attracts over 30,000 visitors from all over the world each year, lasts for 9 days and is basically one huge mud flinging party.

Our first stop was to the Military Training grounds where various exercises and games took place. We got into army gear and headed out to the mud field. Instantly we were being shouted at by this Korean dude to get down, crawl, squat and roll around in the mud. This was our first taste of the skin revitalizing substance and automatically turned a bunch of mature, respectable young men and women into five year olds. It was great! We also divded into teams, played some mud rugby and had a big battle royal to cap off the event.

After a quick stop off at the hotel to drop our stuff off, we made our way to downtown Boryeong where the main festivities took place. The main entertainment included mud pits, mud painting, mud climbing, a mud jail and the “Mud Super Slider”, a massive bouncy inflatable slide that stretches 25 meters on the beach. Needless to say there was a lot of mud. In the night they had fireworks, good food and a big concert on the main stage.

The Boryeong Mud Festival was definitely one of the best times I've had so far in Korea. 100% recommened to anyone who gets the opportunity to go. Only if you don't mind finding bits of mud in mysterious places for the next few days after that is...