Unfortunately I let this rule slip at the Half Moon Party this month as I was attending with a group of good friends and we were having a good time. Unfortunately towards the end of the night a friend of mine decided (in a drunken state) that it might be a good idea to take a swan dive off the balcony, head first and legs flapping as he fell.

The poor chap was ok, a few cuts and bruises, but whilst I was helping to peel him off the concrete some lowlife decided to make off with part of the recording equipment I use for grabbing sound from the parties. Luckily a few days later I received an anonymous phone call and the equipment was retrieved after paying a ‘reward’ so all is not lost!

It was a pretty busy evening but less busy than I had expected following the crowded Full Moon Party I had witnessed a few days before. I did manage to grab a recording for you and you can find it in the downloads section as usual.

As luck would have it we actually kept dry last night, the strong breeze was beneficial in keeping us cool, it’s always a nice bonus when there is a decent wind at one of these parties supplying us with natural air conditioning. Never a problem at the Full Moon Party due to the sea breeze but the in-land parties like the Half Moon Party and the Shiva Moon Party can get a bit warm at times.

It was a fairly busy night last night, not quite as busy as recent months but still pretty packed and plenty of people having a good time. Some great sounds coming from the guys in the DJ booth once again this month. The music seems to finally be changing here on Koh Phangan after being stuck in the Psycho Trance loop for so damn long.

So considering this is supposed to be one of the quietest months on Koh Phangan it’s surprising to see the Half Moon Party doing so well last night, lets just hope this trend continues for the Full Moon Party later in the month!

I don’t go to the parties very early, I usually go around midnight and usually just walk straight up to the ticket booth, pay (yes we do pay nobody lets us in for free) and then go inside. So I was really shocked to have to join a queue of around 100 people to buy a ticket, I knew it was going to be a busy night.

Inside the venue was packed wall to wall, people were standing everywhere that there was room, on the stairs, in the toilet area, everywhere. To be truthful there were probably too many people to be comfortable, if the success of the Half Moon Party continues to grow they are going to need to start restricting numbers…..
I’m very interested to see if this emerging trend continues. If it does we could well see the Half Moon Party taking top spot on Koh Phangan as the premier event on the island.
I did manage to get a slightly dodgy recording, you can find it in the download section.

The music was also pretty sweet, moving away from the usual trance theme with some real funky base and solid rhythm for the early part of the night. I love it when the music is a surprise, for so long now the majority of DJ’s on Koh Phangan have been locked into the tired old Goa trance theme, it’s great to see them starting to break out of this more and more.

We did manage to get a small recording for you, check the downloads section. We also had a chat with this guy……
This is Jeurgen, he’s 45 and he is from Germany, he had a perfect excuse to be at the Half Moon Party – his girlfriend works there!

The odd thing is, Jeurgen tells us he doesn’t like parties! He was only there to meet his girlfriend! He looked like he was having a pretty good time to me though!
Ok that’s it for now, I’ll be back with a report on Black Moon Culture in a few days!

We are told the venue got a little bit wet in the later party of the night as the heavens opened and the rain poured down in torrents. This doesn’t usually upset the party goers too much and we are sure a good time was still had by all.

The Half Moon Party is definitely the biggest party on Koh Phangan after the Full Moon Party and definitely one of the islands premier events…..
Our reporter is hoping to be back on his feet (and his bike) for the Moon Set Party on 25th Jul, so check back for a full report.

Once again the queue at the ticket booth was quite daunting, but always good fun to see people starting to get messy whilst they wait to get into the venue……
Unfortunately we had some problems with our recording equipment so are unable to bring you the promised mp3, well we did record it, it just sounds like somebody scratching a chalk board with their finger nails. Hopefully we can get this problem resolved ready for the Moon Set Party in a couple of days.

So there we have it, another great half moon party on Koh Phangan, people seemed to be enjoying themselves, quite refreshing and nice to know the place still has some mileage left as a premier party hot spot.