Boryeong Mud Festival: The World's Most Exuberant Summer Event

The Boryeong Mud Festival (보령머드축제) is an annual outdoor summer festival held for two weeks in July on and around Daecheon Beach in Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province. The festival's centrepiece is an enormous mud zone constructed on the beach using mineral-rich mud extracted from the Boryeong tidal flats, which are known for their high concentration of germanium, bentonite, and far-infrared minerals. Activities include mud slides, mud wrestling pits, mud prison escape challenges, mud massage booths, and a large mudflat swimming pool, alongside evening concerts, fireworks, and an international food market.

The festival was launched in 1998 by Boryeong City as a promotional event for the region's cosmetic mud products, which had been developed as a skincare line based on the tidal flat mud's mineral content. Initial attendance was modest — around 200,000 — but word spread rapidly through international military and expatriate networks in Seoul, and by the mid-2000s the festival was drawing visitors from over 40 countries. International media coverage positioned it as a must-do summer experience in Asia, and attendance peaked at over 2.5 million annually before the 2020 pandemic. The festival is credited with a major economic transformation of the Boryeong region.

The mud zone on the beach is free to access and open daily throughout the festival. The main mud slide — a 100-metre inflatable ramp into a mud pit — is the signature attraction. An evening concert stage hosts K-pop and international performers. A separate marine mud experience area located on the actual tidal flats offers a more natural mudbath environment. The cosmetic mud market sells Boryeong mud products at factory prices.

Wear old clothes and sandals you don't mind destroying — or buy festival swimwear from beach vendors. Store valuables in the paid locker facilities at the beach entrance. The festival runs for about two weeks in mid-July; the first weekend is the most crowded. After mudding, outdoor shower stations are available free of charge along the beach.