Wetlook World Forum

Here is a report of what transpired that day -- a friend of mine went up there to tape it for us, and he sent me this info. Basically...there was good news and bad news for the events this year. The goods news was..the weather was very good and there were loads of people. The bad news was, this year was the worst event for drunkedness and rowdiness, and the entire future of the fountain day events are now in jeopardy -- so this may be cancelled in future, cos the police and ambulance services were very upset at the campus for not controlling the situations that developed and for the way things were managed.

Basically, at last years event...we already saw the spectre of things going bad...cos instead of being a great day as it was for the prior 14 years...last year you had drunken mobs of male students attacking people and putting green dye in the fountain to mess things up -- and this year those problems escalated to a far worse extent. The Campus Police and authorities thought they could avoid problems by imposing a ban on alcohol and "no bags permitted" into the plaza...but that plan just backfired on them -- cos all that did was to cause all the students to tank up and get blind drunk in their dorm rooms...before they entered the fountain area. The ban on bags was ineffective and ridiculous, cos it did nothing to curb the rowdiness...and actually worked against us camera folks...cos they would not even allow us to bring in a plastic bag to protect the camera.

The net result was, widespread mayhem -- over 20 people taken to the hospital due to various injuries...and also...an even more threatening menace...i.e. gangs of drunken guys going after anybody they saw carrying a camera...and trying to throw them in the fountain to ruin their cameras. The ONLY safe place was upon on the balconey areas.

My camera guy was assaulted several times by these bozos trying to push him in or grab his camera. The net result being...he had to quit after shooting for 35 mins...cos things were just too rough to continue and his camera suffered water damaged and stopped working.

The irony is...while he was brave enough to venture down to the fountain level...he noticed at least 20 to 30 other folks with camcorders filming from the balconey area....so he had to quit...and told me...I suppose some of those folks on the balconey were from our forum....so hopefully they will send in their footage...cos I quit...this is too rowdy for me. My question is...where are these people....cos from from I read on this forum...nobody else bothered to go. And, judging by the events this year....I would not recommend going next year...cos things will either get worse, or cancelled entirely. My only advice is...if you do go next year...stay up on the balconey....cos you will probably be assaulted if you venture down to the plaza level.

Mind you...things tend to get a bit rough and rowdy at times at the water festival in Thailand....but you can easly avoid that (just hang around with the Thai people...and avoid all the drunken europeans who hang out mostly where the bars are).

Anyway....so I think Albany is not really worth all the aggravation any more....it has been ruined by alcohol. Having a ban on bringing bags in will not work...what they should have done is...have instant breathalizer kits at the entrance to the park, and not allow anybody to enter who is already inebriated.

For what it is worth...my friend did get about 35 mins of good footage before the crowds got out of control...that is not enough to fill a tape...so what I will do is add that 35 mins of footage to the end of one of my forthcoming wetlook series tapes from Thailand.

BTW....We shot tons and tons of great footage while in Thailand this year...including lots of interesting special events stuff and finding lots of Thai girls to work with us....but I am not going to say anything more about what we did....cos Leonmoomin and Wet Brian will be telling you all about their adventures very shortly themselves.

MK