bangkok pride week 2004 begins
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
With the usual mix of fun, food, sport, sexy bodies, fundraising and AIDS awareness raising, thousands of locals, expats and visitors flocked to Lumphini Park as Bangkok Pride Coalition launched its Pride Week 2004 with "Pride in the Park".
This year the event was officially opened by Bangkok's Deputy Governor Khun Penchart, a welcome sign of growing official support for the local administration, and there was lots to see and do all day with great food and drink available from stalls set up by Balcony, Bug&Bee, Dicks Cafe and Telephone. There are also information booths from local and international gay organisations, and a first this year was a very popular second-hand bookstall operated by Balcony. Utopia Asia was there again broadcasting the fun worldwide.
Once again the highlight of the day was the Dragoncastle Sexy Swimsuit competition. With 12 contestants this year the pool area was packed with frantic vote buying for Mr Popular raising about 13,000 Baht! Balcony staff dominated the awards, with their waiter Jay getting Mr Popular and second runner up in the judge's awards, first runner up was another of their waiters, Dew who was the last year's winner. Top prize from the judges this year went to Johnny and with a body like that it was no surprise!
For the serious sports fans there was volleyball all day as well and in the annual Telephone Vs Balcony match Telephone managed to turn the tables and emerge victorious this year, and the lucky draw included some great prizes - if you had a ticket the results should be on the Bangkok Pride website soon and are available at the major venues around town.
Some pictures from the day are available in the gallery here and more pictures should be up here soon and on the Bangkok Pride website. Also check out dragoncastle for more swimsuit competition details.
And the fun continues all week:
- Tuesday - Cabaret Night at Balcony
- Wednesday - White Night Party at Dick's Cafe Bangkok
- Thursday - Isaan Party at Balcony
- Friday - Utopia Awards at Roxy
- Saturday - Utopia Dinner Cruise, Pride Party at Telephone
- Sunday - Pride Parade and party in Silom
- Monday - Silom Soi 4 "Over-time" Party
Full details are in the calendar here and on the Bangkok Pride website. The Long Yang Club is also holding their international conference in Bangkok this week - see the LYC iCON 2004 web site for details.
Congratulations to the Bangkok Pride Coalition and all the participants for organising a great day, and I hope to see you all around town this week and at the parade on Sunday!
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