[imagesource:here]

Ever guzzled the cheapest of booze, mixed with a knock-off version of Red Bull, from a bucket, with a full moon overhead?

If you have, you were probably in Thailand at the time, with the country’s most famous Full Moon party taking place on the island of Koh Phangan.

The stretch of beach along Haad Rin drew crowds of around 30 000 people at a time, having grown from humble, hippie routes back in the 1980s.

All of that has ground to a halt amidst COVID-19, and whilst business owners along the stretch and across the island are hopeful the party may soon return, there’s a good chance it won’t look the same if and when it does.

CNN reports:

Some on the island are advocating for a more sustainable, better regulated and calmer event with the potential for less negative associations. Others are reported to be in favor of killing off the cash cow permanently and paving the way for other kinds of tourism in Haad Rin.

But judging by the attitude of the whisky-supping powerbrokers, it seems that rumors of the imminent death of the Full Moon Party are premature. The party attracts more than half of the more than one million visitors that come to Koh Phangan each year…

Image: Haad Rin, by Aidan Dockery

The group [the Haad Rin Business Association] mention several areas in which they would like to evolve. They accept the need for mask-wearing and social distancing: at least until the pandemic is firmly in the rear-view mirror. They also hope to attract a wider diversity of higher-quality businesses to Haad Rin to replace the massage and tattoo parlors and tacky souvenir shops, many of which are closed permanently.

Nothing says I overshot the mark quite like waking up the day after a Full Moon party with a shoddy tattoo you have no recollection of getting.

You think it says ‘love and peace’ in Arabic, but really…

Sweeping changes to the party have been proposed before, in order to eliminate some of the more unsavoury elements (excessive drug and alcohol abuse, along with opportunistic crime, being the worst), but those have proven unsuccessful.

UK DJ Graham Gold, now a long-term resident on Koh Phangan, says he presented the Haad Rin Business Association with a 35-page document on how to turn it into a world-class event, a la Tomorrowland, but nothing came from it.

Image: George Henton

Having seen the party grow from humble roots to a massive money-spinner without much real investment, additional spending was deemed unnecessary.

There are also those, like Forward Phangan – a collective of volunteers representing residents, local businesses, and organisations – who are pushing for changes to the party in order to improve the lives of locals.

Ultimately, whilst there will no doubt be short-term changes, with possible long-term ramifactions, the mantra looks to be ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’:

“People have tried to recreate the Full Moon Party elsewhere, but nobody can do it,” smiles P Noi. “So, we can’t wait to see people returning to the best beach party in the world.”

Debatable that it’s the best beach party in the world, but it’s certainly up there with the most popular.

[source:cnn