Full Moon Party - My Event Perspective Assignment

INTRODUCTION

This report is going to briefly discuss about Full Moon Party which is held on the island of Pha Ngan in Thailand every month. This topic is relatively unexplored and discovering academic articles surrounding this topic may be challenging. However, I believe the further analysis into related materials and references will provide the basis of solid assessment into the Full Moon Party. With this report, I am hoping to achieve several outcomes and to identify relevant issues.

Full Moon Festival on Thailand is the original and most popular location to celebrate the full moon. This is home of the famous-infamous Full Moon Party. The festival is celebrated on the arrival of the full moon each month. Thousands of people go to the beach to congregate and celebrate. The festival has become a part of the itinerary of many travellers who come to Asia. After my initial inspection of this event there were some areas that I was interested to analyze in further. In this case, Full Moon Party appears to have both positive and negative impacts. This report will discuss about backpackers tourism and Full Moon Party, and as well the impacts on socio-cultural, environment, and local economic development, these points will be discussed further in next chapter. Finally, I will conclude by giving my perspective towards this event based on the analysis research and personal experiences as well.

FULL MOON PARTY

Started with a small gathering of about 30 people in 1985, Full Moon Party has now evolved become a phenomenal event which attracts people from around the world to travel to the small island of Koh Pha Ngan, they make the pilgrimage to experience the ultimate party and meet new people from different parts of the world. The Full Moon Party (Festival) is an all-night beach party located in Haad Rin beach on the island of Koh Pha Ngan. The Full Moon Party is celebrated on the coming of the full moon each month. While the events origin is somewhat hazy, which is perhaps a reflection of its participants, research suggests that the party originated approximately 25 years ago (Clarke, 2010). A source stated that after a local islander opened the first low budget Had Rin's accommodation in the mid-80s, The Paradise Bungalow, he organised a farewell party for 20-30 of his hippy friends (Kingsley, 2010). Other source suggested a few people gathered and held a party, word spread and over time it grew into the large party that it is today (Clarke, 2010). Regardless of its true initiation, the party has been gaining in fame and popularity primarily through word of mouth and advertisements.

Today, the Full Moon Party attracts between 10,000 and 30,000 party goers from all over the world (Kingsley, 2010). A week after full moon party, there are the half-moon parties which occur