Boryeong is a town about 200 km south of Seoul, South Korea, where the Mud Festival is held every year, during the summer days. It started only in 1998, and by 2007, around 2.2 million people visited Boryeong to attend the festival. Today it has become famous as the Boryeong Mud Festival.
It was considered that, the mud of Boryeong is rich in minerals and good for human skin. As a result, the interested manufacturers started to produce the mud based cosmetics and instead of spending money on commercials, they hit upon a novel idea. From the Boryeong mud flats, they arranged to transport the mud to the beach area of Daecheon, to be used as the festival arena and named it as the Mud Experience Land. After the completion of the arrangements, they started to invite the public to join the festival for having fun in the healthy Mud Wonderland. Naturally, the festival became an instant hit as the marketing device of the Boryeong Mud Cosmetics.
The festival continues for a period of around two weeks. However, the final weekend is most popular among the western population of Korea. With time, and with the funny photographs of the muddy people, the Mud Festival has today become an international phenomenon. To further boost up the spirit of the visitors, competitive items like Mud Wrestling, Mr. Mud contest, Mud Race, Mud Pool Slides and other interesting activities and events are included in the funny festival. Colored mud is also produced for body painting. A large stage is erected on the beach, which is used for live music. For the promotion of the mud based cosmetics, temporary arrangements are made along the seafront to sell the items made using the mud from Boryeong. Various health and beauty clinics offer massages, acupuncture and other treatments using the medicinal qualities of the mud.
Each year the festival marks its end with a large firework display.
It may seem to be an absurd revelry, it may be tempting to dismiss Mud Festival as an idiotic party, a childish merrymaking. But it is also true that, no one has ever said anything bad about it.
