Boryeong Mud Festival – for those who like it really dirty… By Heath Buck Sun, sea, sand, and sex; These are the things you usually look for at the beach, and for one weekend of the year, you can now add mud to that list. On Saturday, the 15 th of July, an exodus of over 30,000 foreigners with a similar number of Koreans headed towards the Boryeong Mud Festival in search of mud. At 11am trainloads and busloads of bleary eyed revellers were dumped in the usually pleasant town of Boryeong , with a desire to turn it into the Devil’s Mud Filled Playground. Visitors generally fell into 1 of 3 categories: The slightly bemused who just want to watch as other people get all muddied up The multitude of photographers risking mud on the lense to grab that award winning shot The plethora of beer swilling mud monsters roaming the beach looking for childish ways to amuse themselves The main beachfront was awash with an array of activities that only had one catch; you must get muddy to participate: Mud Wash – the starting point for most visitors; with outdoor wash areas complete with buckets of mud and mirrors to ensure you completely lather your body Mud Wrestling – a firm favourite, the morning seemed to be dominated by guys trying to prove their macho prowess, only to take a backseat in the afternoon to enjoy the sight of girls rolling around with each other Mud Prison – a cage where people voluntarily stand whilst spectators hurl mud in their faces (more enjoyable than it sounds) Mud slide – one drunk fool came up with the idea of a 10 metre high inflatable slide with a mud pool at the bottom; over 1000 drunk fools queued for up to 40 minutes to test it out Mud Football – riding off the back of an enthusiastic world cup, a purely mud pitch has been created complete with a referee who books for sliding tackles (a bit of a harsh rule for the mud-pitch) Mud obstacle course – It had to be done!!! In addition there were performers on special stages, and the usual abundance of vendors trying to sell things that ranged from useless to pointless (why would anyone pay for a bottle of mud at a mud-festival where it is delivered barrel load for free?!?!). The atmosphere for the weekend was electric, and nothing beats the sight of seeing a mixed group of Koreans and foreigners plastered in mud, holding 2 litre bottles of beer, and argueing over who really should have won the world cup. As the day turned into night, the drinking continued and so did the entertainment. The centre piece was one of the most amazing firework displays put on in Korea , followed by hours of playing the sea front games. Some games were invented such as crab bobbing. Some drunk foreigners were convinced they could catch the restaurant front crabs with their teeth. Rather than chase them off, the restaurant owners just laughed like the rest of us (besides it was these same tourists who ensured sales sky-rocketed for the weekend). Around 2am suddenly people started to whiz by on mini-motorbikes complete with 2 litre bottles of beer in their hands. These newly formed biker gangs quickly dissipated after the rental shop decided to stop hiring them on the basis that one drunk tourist had managed to lose his bike! (I didn’t even ask why he was renting to drunks…) People started to return to the beach and with no more firework displays, revellers started to use their own. Groups gathered, couples settled, and everyone watched as two drunkards started shooting small fireworks (roman candles) at each other for fun! Luckily there was no serious damage, although the loser did look like he might wake up with rather less chest hair than he had the night before. As I started to contemplate how much fun the day had been, a naked guy from Florida came jogging by to ask if we’d seen his clothes, apparently they were somewhere on the beach! We gave him a plastic bag to cover his privates and watched as the night ended. A Dirty Weekend will never have the same meaning again – incidentally, apparently the mud is also good for you.   Back to Tales from the Edge main menu