Katy Mancewicz’s bathing suit was a mess, covered with grayish goo. She’d never been dirtier, or happier.
“We are having so much fun. We’ve decided to become children today,” the 24-year-old English teacher said.
Every July, this city of 100,000 gets down and dirty in what has become one of South Korea’s most participatory summer spectacles: the Boryeong Mud Festival.
Mud appears everywhere: It’s rubbed into people’s faces, thrown at baby strollers, caked on as a beauty treatment. There are mud fountains, mud pools, mud slides.
The free, nine-day festival was started almost by accident in 1998 in this beach city two hours from Seoul. Several local businesses had developed a mud-based cosmetic product that wasn’t selling.
Then somebody came up with a promotional gambit: Throw a little mud and the customers would come, they guessed.
More Top Picks When Does The Winter Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 Start
According to Boryeong officials, more than 2 million people were expected to attend this year’s festival, which ends Sunday.
And no worries about getting the mud off, organizers say. The sticky substance is saturated with minerals and provides skin-care benefits, they say.
– – –
Follow Tribune Newspapers national and foreign correspondents as they report the latest news from across the country and globe: chicagotribune.com/nationworld
Boryeong Mud Festival
Images from the event featuring mud wrestling, mud sliding and a mud king contest at chicagotribune.com/koreamud
Michigan mud fun
Children in Westland, Mich., dive in at the annual Mud Day event at chicagotribune.com/michiganmud
Documenting a life
Multipart movie chronicling Kim Jong Il’s early years may be an indication of failing health: chicagotribune.com/movie