Not every great festival has a thousand years of history. Some are just enormous, joyful fun. Every summer, the Korean beach town of Boryeong invites tens of thousands of people, locals and travellers from all over the world, to spend a few days covered head to toe in mud. The Boryeong Mud Festival is unpretentious, deliriously messy, and one of the most welcoming, lively parties in Asia, a pure shot of summer joy.
Why mud, and why here
Boryeong sits on a coast famous for its mudflats, and the local mud is rich in minerals and long prized for its supposed benefits for the skin, which is why Korea built a cosmetics industry around it. The festival began in the late 1990s partly to promote those mud cosmetics, and grew, with cheerful inevitability, into a massive summer beach party where the marketing premise, the mud is good for you, became an excuse for everyone to get gloriously filthy together.
So while it lacks the ancient roots of many festivals, it has something just as valuable: an absolutely clear purpose, which is to have an enormous amount of fun. There are mud pools, mud slides, mud wrestling, mud prison, mud body-painting, and giant inflatable everything, all set on Daecheon Beach under the summer sun, with music, food, and a party that runs into the night.
Boryeong has no ancient legend and needs none. Its purpose is simple and complete: get tens of thousands of strangers happily, hopelessly covered in mud.
On the mud festival
What the days are like
The festival sprawls across Daecheon Beach for several days, usually peaking on a summer weekend. Vast quantities of the mineral mud are trucked in and you simply throw yourself into it, slathering it on, sliding through it, wrestling in it, until you are an unrecognisable grey figure indistinguishable from everyone around you. The sea is right there to rinse off in, and then you do it all again.
What makes it special is the atmosphere: relentlessly good-natured, young, international, and inclusive. It is one of the most foreigner-friendly events in Korea, drawing travellers, students, and expats from across the country and beyond, all united by the great equaliser of being completely covered in mud. There are no spectators here either; you cannot stay clean and you would not want to.
How to do it well
- It is a summer festival, usually held over several days peaking on a weekend in July, on Daecheon Beach in Boryeong, a couple of hours from Seoul.
- Wear clothes you will ruin. Old swimwear and a shirt you do not care about. Everything gets caked in grey mud.
- Protect your phone and valuables. Lockers and waterproof pouches are essential. Mud and electronics do not mix.
- Sunscreen under the mud, and hydrate. It is a hot, all-day beach party. Look after yourself between the mud pools and the music.
- Come to make friends. The whole appeal is the easy, international, party atmosphere. Dive in, literally and socially.
Permission to just have fun
There is something liberating about a festival with no deeper agenda than joy. Boryeong is not asking you to contemplate impermanence or honour your ancestors; it is asking you to get filthy and laugh with strangers on a beach in the sun. In a country as hard-working and high-pressure as Korea, the mud festival is a glorious, sanctioned release, and for a traveller it is one of the easiest, most fun ways to feel instantly part of a Korean summer.
Some festivals you witness with reverence. Boryeong you dive into face-first, and emerge a grey, grinning, mud-caked friend of everyone on the beach.
On the OJ South Korea trip Korea's mix of ancient and exuberantly modern is the whole appeal, the palaces and temples alongside the neon, the food, and the irrepressible fun of Korean youth culture. Because the mud festival is the wildest expression of it, but a country that throws a national party out of a beach full of mud tells you everything about why Korea is one of the most joyful, surprising places to travel right now.
Frequently asked
When is the Boryeong Mud Festival held?
The Boryeong Mud Festival takes place in summer, usually over several days peaking on a weekend in July, on Daecheon Beach in the town of Boryeong, a couple of hours from Seoul on South Korea's west coast. Exact dates vary year to year, so check the schedule when planning.
What do you actually do at the Boryeong Mud Festival?
You get covered in mineral-rich local mud and enjoy mud pools, mud slides, mud wrestling, body painting, inflatables, music, food, and a beach party that runs into the night. The sea is right there to rinse off in. The atmosphere is young, international, and relentlessly fun, and there are no spectators, only mud-covered participants.
Is the Boryeong Mud Festival good for foreign tourists?
It is one of the most foreigner-friendly festivals in Korea, drawing travellers, students, and expats from across the country and the world. The inclusive, party atmosphere and the great equaliser of being covered in mud make it very easy to dive in and make friends. Wear clothes you can ruin and protect your phone and valuables.