Thousands Of Gays Set To Flock To Phuket Festival

[george]

Thousands of gays set to flock to Phuket festival

PHUKET: -- Thousands of gay people from around the world are expected to flock to the Gay Festival at Patong Beach next week as part of efforts to help revive tourism after the tsunami disaster.

Chanok Kaewseenuan, chairman of Phuket Gay Community, said more than 10,000 gays from Germany, Italy, Belgium, United Kingdom, Sweden, Korea and Japan have confirmed they will join the April 7-10 festival.

He expects over 100 million baht to circulate at Patong beach during the festival which will help promote tourism in Phuket.

Mr Chanok said the gay festival is usually held every February but this year Patong beach had been severely damaged by the tsunami so he was forced to organise the 6th Gay festival later in April instead.

There will be a gay fashion show, a concert and beach volleyball on April 8-9 and a huge 1km gay carnival parade will circle Patong beach on April 10.

Mr Chanok said gay nightlife and night spots in Patong beach had also been hit by the tsunami.

Mr Chanok said the best thing that gay people could do was to try to help out the tourism industry in Phuket.

--Bangkok Post 2005-04-02