Ten Days of Glorious Filth
The smell hits you first — wet clay and sunscreen and something vaguely metallic. Then the sound: a few thousand people screaming in genuine delight as they hurl themselves down inflatable slides coated in grey sludge. Daecheon Beach in Boryeong, South Korea, has been taken over, and dignity is no longer on the menu.
The Boryeong Mud Festival runs for ten days every July. Somewhere between 2 and 3 million people show up — the exact number is hard to pin down because who’s counting when you’re waist-deep in mineral-rich mud. It is, by most accounts, South Korea’s single biggest draw for international visitors during summer, and one of the more improbable success stories in festival history.
A Marketing Stunt That Got Out of Hand
The origin story is almost too good. In the late 1990s, the Boryeong region was sitting on tidal mud flats loaded with germanium, bentonite, and various minerals that are legitimately good for skin. A local cosmetics company was making mud-based beauty products — face masks, cleansers, the works — but nobody was buying them. Their solution: invite the entire country to come roll around in the raw material.
The first festival in 1998 was modest. A few mud pits, some games, not much fanfare. But word got out through South Korea’s expat community and backpacker networks, and within a few years the thing had gone international. Fifty-plus countries represented now, apparently. The cosmetics company presumably considers this a marketing win.
Getting Dirty: The Full Menu
The main festival area on Daecheon Beach is divided into themed zones, and the variety is better than you’d expect from what is essentially ‘mud, but different shapes.’
The mud wrestling ring is the obvious headliner. Step in, grapple with a friend or a complete stranger, slip immediately, repeat. Nobody looks good doing this, which is sort of the point. The mega mud slides are exactly what they sound like — giant inflatables coated in slippery mud, sending people flying into pools at the bottom. There’s also an obstacle course that involves crawling, climbing, and a lot of involuntary face-planting.
The colored mud zone is where things get creative. Pink, blue, and gold muds — I’m not sure what makes them different colors, honestly, probably dye — are available for body painting and the inevitable Instagram session. The regular mud pools are more chill: just wade in and soak. The mineral content supposedly tightens pores and smooths skin, which is what people tell themselves to justify sitting in mud for an hour.
Then there’s the mud prison, which is exactly as weird as it sounds. Festival staff in military costumes ‘arrest’ you and throw you into a mud pit. It’s played for laughs but the commitment to the bit is impressive.
The Marine Corps Thing
This is the part that’s uniquely Korean. The festival has a partnership with the Republic of Korea Marine Corps — actual Marines — who run a military-style obstacle course zone. Visitors can crawl under netting through mud and attempt various training challenges. It’s recreational, technically, but the Marines take their mud seriously. Make of that what you will.
After Dark
The festival doesn’t stop when the sun goes down. K-pop acts play the main beach stage — a mix of established artists and groups you’ll probably be googling afterward. At night, EDM DJs take over and the beach becomes something between an open-air club and a very muddy rave. There are fireworks displays on key evenings, though the schedule tends to shift, so check closer to the date.
Traditional Korean performances and cooking demos fill the daytime entertainment program, but let’s be honest — most people are here for the mud.
The Cosmetics Angle
Boryeong hasn’t forgotten why this all started. Mud cosmetics booths are everywhere at the festival, offering free samples and demos. Face masks, mud soap, cleansers, moisturizers — all at festival prices, which are noticeably cheaper than retail. The sales strategy is brilliantly circular: spend a day soaking in the stuff, then buy the bottled version to take home. It works. Most people leave with at least a mud mask or two.
The Honest Truth About Logistics
Let’s talk about the less glamorous parts.
Getting there is straightforward but not fast. Daecheon Beach is about 2.5 hours from Seoul by express bus. You take a bus from Seoul’s Central City Terminal (Honam Line) to Boryeong Bus Terminal, then a local bus or taxi for the last 15 minutes to the beach. During festival weekends, shuttle buses run between the terminal and the beach, which helps.
What to wear: swimwear plus old clothes you’re prepared to throw away. Mud stains everything. Some of it washes out, some doesn’t. Water shoes or beat-up sneakers are far better than flip-flops — flip-flops get sucked off your feet in the mud within minutes. Leave any jewelry at your accommodation.
Showers and storage: the site has shower stations, but the queues during peak hours are genuinely long. Lockers for valuables are available but rent them early because they fill up fast. Bring a towel and a full change of clothes in a waterproof bag. This is not optional advice.
Your phone will die or get destroyed if you’re not careful. Waterproof phone cases are sold by vendors at the beach for a few thousand won — buy one before you enter the mud zones. Better cameras should stay in the locker. Some people go phone-free for the day, which is either liberating or terrifying depending on your relationship with your device.
Accommodation books out fast during festival weekends. Boryeong’s hotels and guesthouses aren’t numerous to begin with, and demand spikes hard. If you’re flexible, camping on the beach area is possible during the festival. Budget motels near Boryeong Bus Terminal are an option but mean a commute to the beach each day. Booking through Trip.com or Hotels.com for Boryeong area stays a month in advance is probably the move.
Food: festival food stalls serve the standard Korean street food lineup — tteokbokki, fried chicken, grilled seafood, bibimbap. There are convenience stores along the road to the beach. For actual sit-down meals, the restaurants around Daecheon Beach do fresh seafood well, particularly raw fish (hoe) and grilled shellfish. Not the cheapest meals you’ll have in Korea, but the quality is solid.
When to Actually Go
This matters more than you’d think. Weekdays are dramatically less crowded than weekends. The opening and closing weekends are peak chaos — biggest crowds, most energy, longest waits for everything. If you want the full festival intensity, go on a weekend. If you want to actually enjoy the mud zones without queueing twenty minutes per slide, aim for a weekday in the second half of the festival.
Getting to Boryeong from Seoul as a day trip is doable but exhausting. If you’re planning the trip through KKday, look for packages that include transport — it takes the logistics headache out of a day that’s already going to be physically demanding.
What Makes It Actually Work
The Boryeong Mud Festival is not sophisticated. It is not refined. It is a bunch of people throwing mud at each other on a beach, and that is precisely why it works.
There’s something about being covered head to toe in grey sludge that flattens every social hierarchy. Korean office workers, foreign backpackers, families with small children, retirees — everyone ends up equally filthy and equally delighted. There’s no VIP section in a mud pit.
And the mud is actually good for your skin, which is a nice bonus. The minerals that started this whole thing are real. Boryeong mud genuinely contains the stuff that cosmetics companies charge a premium to bottle.
On the train back to Seoul, I noticed most people had the same slightly dazed expression — tired, sunburned, still finding mud in unexpected places. The guy across from me had grey streaks behind his ears that he’d clearly missed in the shower. He looked completely satisfied about it.
