An arial view at the beginning of the day

Well considering that the beginning of this week was subjected to hurricane type winds and rain, the weather was idilic for the Fancy Dress Day.

The sun was out and the sky was blue....  and what a turnout! Absolutely thousands turned up, dressed in all manner of fancy dress. The effort that everyone went to was truly amazing - some were easy to identify and some not so....

I think that some of the revelers had been out since the night before - and good on them, they were certainly having fun.

Winners.... The Benidorm Bunnies - I didn´t choose them!

This year I decided to run a fancy dress competition to raise some money for Emaus, a local childrens charity. I asked Yolanda, Head of the Benidorm Tourist Board and Michelle, editor of the Round Town Times to be judges... certainly not an enviable task with so many present! Unbelievably, it was Yolanda´s first time at the event and to say she was shocked at the numbers was an understatement.

It was 1 euro entry and the winner, or winners stood to win 50 euros.... which as the case turned out, was shared between the four bunnies! You can see me pictured with them and the 2 judges at ether side - Yolanda in the blue and Michelle in black.

Black & White minstrels... would that be allowed in UK!

The winners, Paul Raymond, Andy Speed, Gary Needham & Jim Fowler are from Mansfield in Nottinghamshire and also came last year. They assured me that more of them will be coming next year... making a cheeky reference to being rampant rabbits and so multiplying!
The boys arrived last Saturday for a week and have enjoyed all the cheer and celebrations surrounding the fiesta period, which is the chief reason that everyone was here.

TVCostas were filming throughout the afternoon, interviewing many of the participants and most local British press were present, including some Spanish ones too. And looking at their faces, finding the sight before them hard to believe. I spoke to one photographer and he said that the February Carnival had a lot to live up to!

What I found quite amazing was that considering the number of people attending, there were hardly any duplicates of costumes or characters. In some cases hardly surprising though.....

Many of the groups had their photographs taken at the side of Sinartra´s and those pictures will all be uploaded to Facebook... you can view them via the clubs website: www.discotouchofclass.com

The back of the cheeky bunnies!

The crowds spilled out way past the Square area and many of the roads were taped off by the local police, allowing the revelers to safely wonder into the street. The crossroads of Tiki City and Andy´s was packed - I think that everyone will have had a good night and that there will be one or two sore heads in the morning looking for a good old English fry up!

But there was one thing that I did find rather disturbing and I bet you´re thinking its something to do with drunken behaviour - WRONG.
I was totally shocked and baffled as to why there was a bear in a cage in the middle of everything! Yes, a REAL bear.... Im not sure whether anyone could really believe what they were seeing!

I was a little disappointed that when I counted the money - it came to just under 200 euros.... and 50 of that went to the winners. Still, I know that Emaus will be delighted. It was the first year of doing it and as Yolanda pointed out, I could have done with a sound system or microphone to announce I was there and some volunteers shaking tins around the area, as only a small percentage actually got to Sinartra´s.... the vast majority were spread out across the entire area. But thank you to everyone for donating.

Well thats another year over and done with..... get your thinking hats on for next years themes and costumes.

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