Rains wash out Miss England pageant

Thursday, 31 May 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Divya Thotawatte

Plans to crown Miss England 2018 for Miss Europe have been upset after the reigning Miss England Stephanie Hill was unable to travel to Sri Lanka after a travel advisory was issued on inclement weather and dengue, organisers said recently.

Ozo Colombo and Amari Galle of Onyx Brand were to host the Premier Miss England Pageant, but had to redirect their plans due to the travel advisory issued after torrential rains left more than 100,000 people displaced and killed 21 since last week. Premier Ceylon together with Onyx Hospitality Group has diverted their attention to flood relief to assist people in affected areas.

Onyx Hospitality Group Sales and Marketing Area Director Kiran Sonawane explained, “The whole intention this year was not only to support the economic and cultural development of Sri Lanka but also to make sure we stand by the commitment of what Premier Ceylon has done in terms of helping Sri Lanka as a country. So the plan was to bring beauty queens here, we host them as a hospitality partner.”

“But looking at the current situation the country’s need and requirement is absolutely different than what we were planning, we decided to take a complete different turn, help the people, the people in need. The situation is such that we don’t want to host a lifestyle party because it’s a completely different game, people are in a different mindset and having this lifestyle event is not matching the whole scenario. So we pulled that out and divert our attention to flood relief,” added Sonawane.

Premier Ceylon Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Jagath Wijesekara said that the event was halted because of the adverse weather conditions, to support the flood affected community and that the Miss England organisation was more than happy to help. Also Premier Ceylon has partnered with Sarvodaya organisation and the flood relief activities started last Saturday. Sarvodaya is at the moment facilitating Premier Ceylon but in the future they are planning to raise funds from Europe for such purposes.

Uber Minds Director Kishani Gunasekera stated, “It’s unfortunate because it was an opportunity to promote Sri Lanka as a country to Europe, the Western world in general because the young contestants are all influencers in their own right, but there will still be influence since some of them have arrived in the country even though there has been a travel advisory against coming to Sri Lanka but it’s more important that we help our community at this time than moving on and have a flashy event.”

Pix by Indraratne Balasuriya