One final event in three-day-long Lunar New Year Celebration is a beauty pageant. We stumbled on the festivities on the way back from dinner and managed to get a prime seat with a good view of the stage.
The pageant began with thirteen contestants – shown below.
The contestants were getting their pre-show instructions in the photo below and one can hardly imagine how jittery their nerves must have been.
There were seven judges from local businesses. In the first phase of the competition, each young woman modeled her evening gown. Each dress was unique and quite beautiful.
A highlight of the event was performances by children in between each phase of the competition. This talented young boy sang. He had an amazing stage presence.
Perhaps every pageant has a talent component and this one was no exception. Most contestants performed various versions of a graceful dance in a lovely, colorful and flowing costume. Then each woman was asked a question to respond to. While we didn’t understand the banter, it was clear which answers audience-members liked as they clapped enthusiastically – more for some than others. The field of contestants was eventually narrowed to five and the winner revealed.
The new Miss Chinatown is Miss Passorn Bussadee. Her prize was 50,000 Baht ($1599.25)!
The event was well-organized and well-attended. Even though we didn’t understand all of the ins – and – outs of the competition, it was a very enjoyable evening.