“The first ever Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan".1988, Nevermore?

[OldChinaHam]

Scottish journalist living in Chiang Mai:

“The first ever Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan was in October 1988 and I was there. However, there are a couple of things that need qualified before we romance the shit out of that night.

First, we were doing Full Moon Parties on Chaweng Beach, Koh Samui, for about six months before that — maybe a year. I had a restaurant-bar on the beach and was the only farang [foreigner] with a business there at the time. We had a generator like all the other resorts, but it was only operational from about 6pm to 10 pm. Then the restaurant closed and all the party-goers had to make do with candlelight or make a bonfire on the beach. The skies were star-spangled back then and blue phosphorescence would spray like diamonds in the sea when you splashed the waves. It was especially exhilarating when you were on hed kee kwai or “buffalo-dung mushrooms”.

The thing about the beach in 1987 to 1988, is that packs of mad dogs roamed at night, and there were muggers and the occasional shooting. When there was no moon you couldn’t see a thing and few travelers — for no! we were not backpackers or tourists back then, oh no! — would sally forth down the corridor of darkness along the shore. But on full moon nights, well, that was a different story. The beach became shrouded in a blue mist. The sand glowed silver and the waves danced alive as they hit the shore. Humans emerged from their slumber and re-inhabited the beach. The dogs took shelter in the bushes and everyone set about dancing and ‘shrooming the night away under the beautiful blue moonlight.

Then in the summer of ’88, electricity lines were laid from the main town of Na Thon and each bungalow resort paid the tea-money to get hooked up. Some farang hippies (for there was many an old head in those days) came to me to complain about the advent of electrical power, calling it “colonialism” or “butchering the Thai culture” and stuff like that. I told them I was powerless and that all the staff desperately wanted to watch soap operas on telly, but they wouldn’t listen. The old heads saw electricity as part of the incoming juggernaut of commercialization and clean-shaven tourism that had followed them around the world all their lives....."

Excerpt from Time World here: http://world.time.com/2013/07/08/silver-sand-and-the-sound-of-waves-its-1988-and-thailands-first-full-moon-party/

So it seems like I got here too late, or when I got here the first time I did not know where to go.

It would be nice to read more about those first Moon parties here, if anyone here can still remember.

[stoneyboy]

Some things never change,the Thai staff wanted to watch,boing boing bing bang wallop soap operas.

[thrilled]

I really like the F M Parties at Koh Phangan.I hope it keeps going forever.Some of the best times that I've ever had

[gamini]

same as Pattaya. It was a paradise 50 years ago. With Phuket going the same way too

[GooEng]

attended a few in the early 90's, the first couple were epic! the last two of '92.... by then the main event was already a huge thing with thousands of people there, but it was still quite free and easy and there wasn't the crews of set-up merchants providing drugs to partiers and informing on them..... in fact there was a bar right in the centre of had rin beach that sold ready made (and lit) joints and speed punch openly and nobody bothered. what i always really enjoyed were smaller after full moon parties held the following day at some of the clubs in had rin and at bungalow resorts outside the main village. some of these were better than the full moon gig on had rin beach with dj's from the goa scene doing the tunes. all the people there had already been at it 24 hours at the full moon and they kicked off at 2am after the town bars and clubs wer closed. acid everywhere! tabs, dots, liquid, mushrooms, waaaahhheyyyy! the last one i went to went on until late into the following night. i miss that scene so much, it was just magic.