With 2010 seeing the 13th edition of the Boryeong mud festival, this wildly popular festival attracts scores of Korean and foreign visitors over the 10 days that the festival runs. Held in the summer months, the festival is the perfect excuse for a visit to the 3.5 kilometre of beachfront that is Dacheon beach, home of the mud festival. Interestingly, the mud is shipped in from nearby quarries, and is not normally found on the beach front.

Boryeong Mud Festival History

First held in 1998, the festival was originally aimed at agricultural users, with the mud's rich nutrients and minerals considered beneficial for the soil. However, the focus of the festival has evolved since then, with the focus now being on the mud’s beneficial properties in cosmetics and natural skin care.

Boryeong Mud Festival Activities

A myriad of opportunities abound for visitors to the festival to get down and dirty in the famous mud. Obstacle courses, two storey high slides, mud pits, mud prisons, mud face painting, multi colour mud; bouncing castles are just some of the ways for visitors to cover themselves in the mud. Showers and the Yellow Sea are available to wash off all that mud, and there are numerous first aid stations to deal with any cuts or bruises visitors may have after their time in the mud. Perhaps best of all is the Dacheon beach jjimjimbang, on the southern edge of the beach front.

For just W3 000 you can enjoy hot showers, various hot and cold pools, sauna’s and yet more mud applications if you have not had enough yet. The weekends usually mean that a concert is held down on the beach front, with Kpop stars sharing the stage with local musicians. Following the concert, a spectacular fireworks display is held, with the fireworks being launched off a barge anchored out in the Yellow Sea.

Boryeong Mud Festival Tips

Visitors should prepare to get muddy, whether they planned on it or not. Make sure that you wear old clothes, as they will get dirty. Visitors should also take ass little as possible with them down to the mud area, to lessen the changes of anything being lost, stolen or broken. Everything that you have on your person should be kept in a plastic Ziploc bag to keep everything dry and mud free. If visitors take cameras in to the mud area, certain precautions should be taken. Either they should ensure that their camera is waterproof, or they visitors should purchase a waterproof case, which they will be able to find at most E Marts. A spare set of dry clothes should also be kept handy, as many restaurants, taxi's etc will refuse you entrance should you be exceptionally dirty and wet. These clothes and additional valuables can be stored in the numerous lockers on the beachfront.

Special care should be taken when booking transport to and from the mud festival. For those travelling by bus, your station is known as Boryeong Bus Station. However, despite the fact that the train station is next door to the bus station, he tan station is known as Dacheon Station. The beach is a further 15 min ride in a taxi or local bus.