news

Well, the Bangkok Gay Festival is over for another year, and this year's festival has raised a number of interesting issues and while the festival was a great success there are many important decisions to be made about future festivals.

Given recent events in Bangkok, it was widely predicted that there would be no parade this year, but Khun Pakorn, the festival parade organiser, managed to obtain approval just a few days before the actual parade day. This was largely due to his persistence and determination, and the relationship he has built with local authorities, particularly as a result of his grass roots AIDS awareness activities.

Once approval was granted the float builders and other participants went into high gear to get their entries ready. The theme for the parade this year was to be more oriented towards traditional Thai costume, but not all participants kept to this theme!

DJ Station, a strong financial supporter of the festival and a regular leading participant, managed to ready a stunning float, and the other regular participants - BGF, Balcony and Dick's Cafe - again organised great floats in a very short time. Other regular participants had marching entries, as did many of the go-go bars and other venues.

As in past years the streets were lined with people out to watch the parade, particularly the return leg up Silom, and despite initial problems, traffic control by the police kept the parade running reasonably smoothly - though this will need to continue to improve if the parade is to continue to grow.

Apart from the parade itself, the other great success this year was Pink in the Park organised by the Bangkok Pride Coalition. Lots of stalls, lots of fun sports events, and lots of entertainment and food, and most importantly lots of people - Thais, expats and visitors - attending the event.

The Bangkok Pride Coalition managed to bring together a large number of local community and other interested parties, including many gay venue owners, showing that there is a large pool of interested people who want to be involved in building community events like this, and that such diverse groups can work together to organise successful events.

Reaction to the festival was as usual mixed, both in the press and among different groups in the gay and wider community - there are obviously still a lot of bridges to be built both within and outside the still fledgling gay "community" in Bangkok!

The festival this year has shown what can be achieved in a short time under difficult circumstances, but if the festival is to continue to grow and to evolve, then the many interested parties need to be working together to create a Bangkok Gay Festival 2002 (and beyond) that includes many different events organised by many different groups, rather than all going their own separate ways and working individually to organise separate and competing major events.

For more pictures from the festival see the gallery. For news coverage of the festival see news.

The next big event is of course the Pattaya Gay Festival, and given the success of the lead-up events they seem well placed to achieve their fund raising aims and to have 4 days of fun in Pattaya starting 29 November - see their web site for the latest details. This will be followed in February by the Phuket Gay Festival - again see their web site for details.