On Sunday night (December 30) only a couple of thousand people turned up for the show, which was plagued with technical problems that prevented the entertainment from beginning until almost midnight.
Last night, however, the walled-off area of Patong Beach was jammed with people and although supposed headliner Akon failed (as predicted by The Phuket News) to make an appearance, the partygoers enjoyed themselves immensely.
The exciting light and laser show, augmented at midnight by Patong’s traditional warzone of fireworks, and the pulsing beat of the surround-sound music played by the Djs attracted more walk-in guests who were initially watching the excitement from outside but opted to pay money to get to the heart of the party.
Partygoer Plalida Khamsong, who said she went to the party about 11pm to see her favourite, DJ Tydi, told The Phuket News the event was “Awesome” and the light and sound were “really good”. She finally left at around 4am, she said.
As the tide went out and the VIP guests left their special barges (anchored in front of the main floating stage), partygoers were able to wade from the beach and were allowed to take their place.
Phuket resident Sophida said that overall she had a lot of fun, despite there being certain 'weird mistakes' about the event, not least of all the fact that after the event, "Those who paid for VIP had to swim back from the stage."
Sophida also mentioned that the event did not start at the advertised time of 3pm, but rather at 9pm.
An element that angered Sophida, who paid B2000 for a ticket, was that apparently after 1am, everybody could walk in free.
The first dawn of the new year broke over a few stragglers, the sound system by now silent. Officials will no doubt now be looking at the chequered history of the event, and wondering if it could have been handled better. The organisers will be counting the receipts and working out whether all the stress was worth it.
There most certainly wasn’t the predicted 50,000 in attendance, but for the partygoers who did attend, all of the changes, hiccups, cancellations seemed to be worth it.