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On February 29th, an auspicious day in Thai culture, the opening event in the 2004 Heartt (no that’s not a miss-spelling) 2000 charity campaign was held in Pattaya.
Heartt 2000 is a charity raising funds to treat AIDS and HIV positive patients here in Thailand, and is supported by a number of entertainment organisations, who stage a series of events throughout each year to raise money for this very needed cause.
For this year’s inaugural event, a street party was held, this time with a Western theme, with a stage set up on which various acts would perform later in the evening.
And as part of this theme, a ‘Bucking Bronco’ (or more precisely a mechanical bull) was hired on which, for a donation, members of the public could try their hand at staying aboard this mechanical steed as it’s controllers did their best to dismount them.
From early afternoon, the street, a side street off Second Road, was closed to traffic and a stage built at one end, and tables and chairs laid out from there to the far end where the bronco was then placed.
Although the main event was not set to start until 9:30, the bronco events began in late afternoon as it had to be returned to its hirers before the stage show began.
So I arrived there around 5 PM to find it already in place and although the street was not yet busy, a fair number of people had gathered round and were paying their 150 Baht a time to have a go.
As is the norm here, the Thai contestants (although it was not really a contest as there was no prize) proved more able at staying aboard than their foreign counterparts, albeit by some somewhat unorthodox methods, e.g. locking their feet under the bull’s horns, something you would definitely not try in real life.
Throughout the afternoon and evening a more or less continuous flow of people of all sexes sizes and ages paid their money to have a go, all helping to raise money for the cause.
Eventually at around 9:30 the bull was put out to graze and we gravitated back to the other end of the street to watch the stage show, which as it’s name suggested, consisted of a series of cabaret acts all on a Western theme, performed by singers, dancers and acrobats from the contributing entertainment establishments.
Foremost amongst these was a troupe of acrobats who re-enacted a typical Western bar fight, complete with smoke, fire and gunshots.
There was a pause whilst the doctor in charge of the Heartt 2000 project, Dr Phillipe, gave us an inspiring speech in both excellent Thai and English, and at the end of the evening a raffle was held with a large number of prizes donated by the supporting organisations.
The final amount raised has yet to be published but we know that over 300 people attended and paid 300 Baht each admission, plus bought raffle tickets to the sum of over 70,000 Baht. This plus the 20% of all monies paid for food and drink to the various restaurants in the street should it is expected, get this year’s charity drive off to a very promising start.
The next event will be in April.
A selection of photos from the whole event follows.
To view any of the above photos in full size, just click on it.
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