Mud Festival

The Boryeong Mud Festival is THE most popular festival among foreigners in all Korea. The idea? Boryeong brings in mud from a nearby mud beach, and foreigners turn out by the busload to paint themselves with it, wrestle in it, slide down it, splash in it, and have people throw buckets of it over their heads. Added to that is the fact that the festival takes place on a large, beautiful beach, and the marts and restaurants stay open into the wee hours of the night. There were so many foreigners there, you could almost forget you were in Korea at all.

The festival was very fun and well worth the trip. For one thing, it's cheap. The entry fee was 5,000 Won, but there was lots of free stuff too, including free mud. For another thing, there's nothing quite like being covered in mud. The lines were really long, though, so it's worth it to get there early (we came up on Friday night) and get a motel near the beach. There are a lot of bare bones "pensions" in walking distance of the festival. They basically consist of a single room with a few sleeping mats in the corner, a TV, and a small kitchen. The floor was super hard and the mats super thin, so we were all sore in the morning, but the price was decent when split between five or six people. I didn't take very many pictures because it's hard to take pictures when your hands are covered in mud, and there are many, many far better pictures online if you just google the festival. However, I did snap a few quick shots, so here they are after the cut.




Of course, lots of foreigners means lots of obnoxious "foreigner" behavior. For me, it started on the train ride to Daecheon. The "standing room," where I had to ride, was full of drunk foreigners shouting, singing, playing their music on portable speakers, and otherwise calling a lot of attention to themselves. Meanwhile, the young Korean guys I was standing near would snicker and roll their eyes. Older Koreans seemed less amused.

It continued the next day when we went to buy our breakfast at the local mart. Several guys in swim trunks invaded the store with squirt guns filled with liquor and went around trying to squirt it into people's mouths. I'm sure the residents of Boryeong have a love-hate relationship with this festival.

It rained off and on all morning, but it was warm enough and we missed all the downpours. By afternoon it had totally cleared up and the weather was perfect the rest of the day. After lunch, we walked down to the beach from our motel.

Hey. Where are all the people? The beach looks totally empty! This is just a few blocks away from the festival.

Getting closer. This is more like it. I can see why this beach is a popular beach with Koreans all summer long. It was very big with lots of nice places to sit and good views.

I see my first mud-covered people. Now we're in the right place.

A band plays on the beach, surrounded by crowds of foreigners. Some people have likened this festival to the Spring Break atmosphere in the States. I kind of agree.

People covered in mud listen to the band from the steps.

The beach is crowded with people. English can be heard being spoken all over.

Meanwhile, the beach is positively littered with piles of flip-flops, discarded T-shirts, and beer bottles just like this one. I would hate to be one of the people who has to clean up after this festival!

Inside the festival, people wait in long lines for the attractions, such as Mud Wrestling, Mud Slide, Mud Obstacle Course, Mud Prison, Mud Painting, and a swimming pool for washing off.

Gina, Ashli, and Kirsten, the people I went with. As you can see, we are not very muddy yet. Since the line was so long, we took turns running out of line to douse ourselves from a watered-down mud bucket near the prison.

Me being not very muddy.

Ah, mud.

Much later, I met up with Aynsley and Hye-Jin and we painted ourselves. This was Hye-Jin's first time at the festival, and I think she was a little skeptical of the whole thing. But she did agree to get muddy.

As the mud dries, it turns a bluish-grey color. I'm looking a lot more muddy now.

Ashli and Kirsten go down the mud slide. It was a lot of fun, despite the long wait. We did it twice.

After the slide, I'm even muddier.

And finally, Aynsley and I jumped into the mud wrestling pit right at the end. A lot of fun, and now I'm pretty muddy.

Mmm, mud.

After the festival, at the train station, I took some pictures. The train station was on the edge of town. Standing on the platform looking one way, you got this view.

Looking the other way, you got this. Kind of cool, I think, to have civilization just suddenly drop off. It's hard to see in the pictures, but it was a very sharp contrast.



I returned home only a little sunburned and with only a few mosquito bites. All in all, a success!