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| ▲ This photo, shows foreigners playing "Find the Go Stones" game in the Boryeong Mud Festival. (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, July 18 (Yonhap) -- The 25th Boryeong Mud Festival, which opened for the first time in three years due to COVID-19 on Sunday, when the highest temperature reached 30 degrees, was crowded from the morning with foreigners, as if they had been only waiting for this day.
The faces of those who took off their shoes, entering the mud experience zone were full of excitement and anticipation.
Among the participants covered in mud from head to toe, foreign tourists were also noticed.
Kate, a 25-year-old British who teaches English in Anyang, said that she came to participate in the Mud Festival after seeing about it in a travel magazine.
"I couldn't come because all the nearby accommodations were sold out, but I realized that this festival is so popular, so I reserved a place to stay in Seosan," she said.
"I wanted to come to the Mud Festival with my friends for several years. I'm really happy that it got resumed after three years. I'm having a great time with my friends," Kevin (24), who traveled to Korea with his friends from India, said.
Citizens, regardless of nationality or age, enjoyed the festival with people they met for the first time.
In the "Mud Play Zone," where two teams were divided to find white and black Go stones in the mud, citizens who did not know each other formed a team and did their best to find Go stones with their whole body.
Although they threw mud at each other to prevent them from finding the Go Stones, the faces of the citizens who participated in the game were full of laughter.
"I came because I heard that a festival was being held after a long time, but it feels good to come here and have fun with my son in the mud," Lee Jin-soo (52), who participated in the mud game with his middle school son, said.
With the Boryeong Mud Festival Mud Experience Zone being divided into general zone and kids zone, many family members participated in the festival with their young children.
"Dad, lay down here together. It feels like we became mud ghosts," the children shouted as they had fun seeing their parents lie down together on the mud.
"A lot of my friends told me that they were coming here, so I begged my dad to come here too. Although I have mud all over my body, I feel so happy," said Choi, who visited the mud festival with his parents.
Ryu In-ji (34), who came from Daejeon with her 7-year-old daughter and husband, said, "My husband thought my daughter would like it, so my husband suggested me to come all together. I didn't know my daughter would like it this much, so it feels great."
"I didn't have anything fun these days, but having mud all over me without any concerns relieved stress. It's been a while since I had a good time," a 64-year-old woman, who participated the festival with her son, daughter-in-law and grandson, said.
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Haemin Kim.)
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