The ninth Boryeong Mud Festival started this week at Daecheon Beach, just a two-hour drive south of Seoul. Millions of mud-lovers come to the annual festival to cover themselves in mud and take part in mudslinging activities. Mud activities for visitors include sliding, wrestling, face painting and bathing. The festival has an international feel, as huge crowds of foreigners from all over Korea come to have fun in the sun.
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Tourists pose for a photo behind the bars of a ˇ°mud prisonˇ± during the ninth Boryeong Mud Festival at Daecheon Beach in the city. The five-day festival which attracts millions of mud-lovers ends this Friday.
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ˇ°I wish other beaches in Korea could come up with unique ideas and hold a festival like this. I feel like I'm in a foreign country because of all the foreigners. I really like it," a visitor said. Visitors don't mind waiting in line, sometimes as long as 40 minutes, to take part in the mud slide. "It was worth the wait. I was worried at the beginning and at the end just before I got on it because I've been waiting for a long time. But yeah, it was great," another visitor said.
Mud stations along the beach also allow mud lovers to cover themselves and experience Boryeong's mineral-rich mud, which contains germanium and other minerals believed to help ease arthritis and cleanse the skin by removing toxic waste.
"Some 32,000 foreigners visited the mud festival last year. We have volunteers to assist foreigners with translation and accommodations," said Boryeong Mayor Shin Joon-hee. Around 1 million visitors come to the annual festival, 10 times the number of people living in the city of Boryeong. The festival ends Friday.
Arirang News
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