Finally, after seven years of last minute scrambling for information, we have been contacted by the organizers of the Hua Hin Jazz Festival with confirmed dates of June 12-14. The official signing ceremony of the 8th Hua Hin Jazz Festival took place on March 23 at Municipality office. No lineup details have been released yet but they did state that there will be two stage locations this year which will alleviate some of the overcrowding at previous festivals.
The jazz festival is always a spectacular event regardless of your tastes in music; you can’t beat the carnival atmosphere on the beach and a cold beer (providing it is on sale). For those that can’t wait until June there will be another music festival on the beach in Khao Takiab though it will attract the younger crowd from Bangkok. The Honda Summer Music Fest 2 kicks off at midday on Saturday May 2 and runs into the night, the lineup will feature a number of Thai ska and reggae bands including T-Bone. News updates and photos for both events can be found on the forum – don’t forget to get online and book your accommodation early if you need somewhere to stay for either weekend, it will be jammed.
We would like to congratulate Johan Edfors on his win last weekend at the inaugural Black Mountain Masters, Hua Hin’s first official Asian PGA golf tournament. The event, for those that attended, was very well organized and managed, kudos to Black Mountain Golf Course for hosting and sponsoring it – we hope to see similar events for Hua Hin in the future. Spectator reports and photos from the tournament can be seen on the forum.
Finally a bit of sense and some good news from the ivory towered bureaucrats in Bangkok – there will not be an alcohol ban this year for Songkran. Someone in the ministry of good ideas realised that banning drinking for three days would be damaging to tourism and the economy. Now all they need to do is get the police to do a bit of work by breathalyzing, fining and confiscating vehicles from inebriated drivers and we may see a drop in the death toll this year – not very likely to happen though so take care if you’re on the road that weekend.
There have been more reports trickling in of muggings and bag snatches around town. The culprits seem to be opportunist teenagers on motorbikes whizzing down the streets of central Hua Hin and grabbing what they can. More police patrols later at night would be a deterrent but as we all know the plod spend most of their time during the day hiding in bushes near the railway station jumping out to nab riders with no helmet on! As the economy continues to shrink the level of street crime will inevitably increase though at the moment Hua Hin remains a far cry from the depths of social depravity found across the Gulf.