scene & heard - june
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
June is typically the lowest point of the slow season but looking at the full calendar for the month and some fairly full venues around Bangkok some nights you might not have known that! But it is all up from here, and it gets off to a good start in July with an estimated 20,000 people coming to town for the 15th International AIDS Conference - the biggest AIDS conference ever, and the biggest conference ever to come to Bangkok!
The conference itself is being held at IMPACT Muang Thong Thani, 11 - 16 July, and most formal sessions and activities are only open to conference delegates, but apart from some traffic chaos the conference will also bring a range of social and cultural activities to town, both at the conference venue and elsewhere, many of which are open to all - including a film festival at Scala Theatre in Siam Square. Also at the conference center, but open to the public, is the Global Village, a large community space including booths, promotion areas and general meeting areas for various international and local community, advocacy and support groups. Rainbow Sky, a local gay group will be actively participating here - drop in and see them.
Part of the Global Village project is an advocacy parade in Silom Rd on 14 July starting at 6:00 PM. at the usual position at the corner of Narathiawat and Silom. There will be a "GLBT" contingent that is open to anyone caring to join (other groups include Sex Workers, Women, Youth, and more). The GLBT section is being coordinated by Rainbow Sky - check their web site or contact them for more details.
Some Bangkok venues are also getting onto the swing of the conference as well - Balcony will be holding a special Cabaret Night in Monday 12 July starting at 10:00 PM, cowboys and indians will be descending on Dick's Cafe for a party on Tuesday 13 July from 7:00 PM and Telephone celebrates Bastille Day on Wednesday 14 July from 9:00 PM. Other events are also expected to be announced - keep checking the calendar here for details, and for full details of the conference itself, see the official conference web site.
But really getting July off to an early start in Bangkok will be the Full Moon party at Roxy featuring special guest DJ's, an electronic live act and the best of Techno, Trance and House music to dance to all night - see the Roxy web site for full details. Post-conference on July 20 is Miss Diva and Mr Macho at Telephone, and SlyperX closes the month with their Mr Leo competition.
Down Pattaya way, weighty matters are being considered tonight with Mark from Throb climbing onto the scales again to see how many kilos he has lost and thus how much money the sponsors have to cough up for charity. On the same program is the "funniest katoey competition. Throb's next fundraiser event is on 22 July with their "Rear of the year" competition. Boyz Boyz Boyz is continuing their "Saturday Spectaculars" with special shows each Saturday night. Also in July the Pattaya Gay festival continues their busy schedule with a dinner at Amor. Full details are in the calendar here and on the PGF web site.
If you are into art, the current exhibition at Dick's Cafe Bangkok is a collection of photographs of the dancer Jitti Chompee by three different photographers, and at Art Cafe in Pattaya you can catch a collection of works by Peerasak Sompon. If you are into sport, then the new place to watch (or be seen) will be Balls - the Dick's team's new sports bar-beer in Bangkok - when it opens in July with a large screen TV and large collection of balls on display!
For all the latest venue changes and events as they happen see the calendar here and the directory listings.
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