Diving into this year's Boryeong Mud Festival

중복인 오늘, 더위를 피하러 보령으로! 보령머드축제 개막

Today is Joongbok in Korea, one of the three hottest days of the year.
With heat wave alerts issued across the country, for our Arts and Culture segment this week, our Song Yoo-jin is out to show us one of a way to beat the heat.
Yoo-jin, first of all, where are you?

Jung-min, I'm currently at Daecheon Beach in the city of Boryeong, Chungcheongnam-do Province, which is about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from the capital Seoul.
Today marks the start of the famous Boryeong Mud Festival.
This coastal city is renowned for its sea mud, rich in minerals that are great for the skin hence the mud festival.
The festival originally started small in 1998 as part of the city's efforts to promote its mud-related businesses, like cosmetics.
Over the years, it has grown into one of the most well-known and cherished summer festivals in Korea, attracting more than 46 million people over the past 25 years.
This year's edition officially began this morning at 10 AM, and even now as we head into the evening the atmosphere is still brimming with excitement.
Let's take a listen to what some visitors had to say.

"Our summer vacation just started and we found that the Boryeong Mud Festival starts today, so we headed over here!
I'm so excited because there's a ton of hands-on experiences to enjoy."


"It was a great time.
It’s a lot of fun.
We came here yesterday and went on the beach and saw stuff there and now we’re doing the mud stuff and then later on it'll be the music."


No wonder it was named one of Asia's top three major festivals by the International Festivals and Events Association.
And as this is the first mud festival without any social distancing rules.

Exactly, the staff here say the festival is back in full swing for the first time since 2019, before the pandemic and they expect about 3 million visitors this year.
It will run for about a week longer than last year too, for 17 days.
There are the festival's regular attractions, such as the giant mud pool, slides, and steeplechase.
The highlight this year is the newly added "mud barbecue," where people hang onto a rotating pole, trying not to fall into the mud pool.
The festival has also expanded the size of the "family zone" for kids and for the first time, opened up a mud pool for dogs.
And if you're into mud cosmetics, you can try out the mud massage.

I also heard that there will be other events taking place there besides mud-themed ones.
What are those?

Sure.
At "Mud Square" there will be EDM performances held three to four times a day.
Tomorrow, there's the "World K-pop Festival" featuring popular groups like Apink and ONF.
The festival has decided to make the concert free of charge to show support to those who were affected by the heavy rain this week.
Separately, singer Psy will be holding his "Summer Swag" concert next Saturday at the local stadium, and the World DJ Festival is scheduled to take place on August 5th.
If you're interested, you can find more information and purchase tickets on the festival's official website.
Interpretation services are available in English, Chinese, and Japanese.
So, if you're looking for some muddy fun this summer, Boryeong is the place to be.

Thanks, Yoo-jin.
Have some fun there.

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2023-07-21, 18:00 (KST)