‘Penang Bon Odori Festival 2019’ to feature beauty contest

MISS Penang Bon Odori contest will be featured at this year’s Penang Bon Odori Festival, adding excitement to the annual cultural festival.

“After a few years gap, we are bringing back the beauty contest through ‘Miss Penang Bon Odori’ at the festival in an attempt to re-brand the event,” said Yeoh Soon Hin the state Tourism Development, Arts, Culture and Heritage Committee chairman during a press conference today.

“We want to encourage the locals to be actively involved in cultural events such as this and play significant roles in positioning Penang as a melting pot of the region.

“Through this, we also want to bring Japan to our doorstep so that both the locals and the tourists can be exposed to different cultures and experience it.”

The registration for the contest opens from today and ends on May 31. On top of that, there will be an interview held on June 15 (from 1pm to 6pm) to shortlist candidates for the preliminary round on June 28 (from 12pm to 5 pm) at the Queensbay Mall, the venue sponsor.

“Application form can be downloaded from Facebook page of Japan Graduates’ Association of Malaysia Northern Branch at https://www.facebook.com/JagamJNB ,” added Yeoh.

Among the rules and regulations set for the contest, the contestants must be Malaysians or residents of Malaysia above 18 years old.

The entrance fee is RM30 and the contestants can also rent Yukata (Japanese garment) for two days, with a fee of RM60 and an additional of RM10 per day.

The selection of Yukata designs is on a first come first served basis and is at the discretion of the organising committee.

By Tanushalini Moroter
Pix by Noor Siti Nabilah Noorazis