Yllana Marie Aduana, the country’s representative to the 2023 Miss Earth pageant to be held in Vietnam. TOLEDO CITY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The Miss Earth pageant has moved its coronation date to Dec. 22, while the venue will be held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center, the largest convention center in Ho Chi Minh City.
Pageant organizers made the announcement more than a month since Vietnamese organizers announced the coronation date to be on Dec. 16. The change of date and venue was made in order to accommodate a bigger audience. Vietnam last hosted the annual beauty tilt 13 years ago, or in 2010.
Miss Earth is a one of the major international beauty pageants in the world. The pageant is owned and run by the Manila-based Carousel Productions whose executive vice president is Lorraine Schuck, herself a beauty queen.
“The organizers asked permission from me if they could change the date, because they found a bigger venue. They really want more locals to watch the pageant,” Schuck told INQUIRER.net over the phone on the evening of Sept. 11, after arriving from Bangkok where she attended the Miss Earth Thailand pageant.
“They told me [the new venue] is so much bigger than the previous one they found, but it will be available only on Dec. 22. And I gave in to their request. I heard it’s just recently built, and we’ll be the first international pageant to be held there,” she continued.
Schuck said that if the Dec. 16 schedule would push through, they will only be able to accommodate 1,500 people. “The venue has a seating capacity of 4,000. But when they mount productions, the stage takes up more than half of the place. At the new site, up to 8,000 people can watch even with a huge stage set up,” she shared.
In the Miss Earth pageant’s 22-year history, Vietnam is only the second country outside the Philippines to host the Miss Earth pageant. It became the first overseas venue of the competition when the 2010 edition was held there. The other country was Austria which hosted the 2015 contest.
Schuck further said that the Vietnamese organizers were supposed to mount the 2020 pageant, but it got stalled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They all waited for circumstances to normalize before deciding to push through with the hosting this year. Carousel staged virtual competitions in 2020 and 2021, and returned to holding it on-site in 2022 in Manila.
She said fans should expect nothing but an impressive show from the Vietnamese organizers for the 2023 pageant because they have been waiting for three years for the event. “Just recently, Vietnam has been making its mark with its remarkable stage productions, not only for pageantry,” Schuck said.
This was different from the 2010 competition, she said, when Carousel brought its own production team to mount the show. “Back then they still did not know how to stage big pageants. But now they are already able to put up great shows,” Schuck explained.
The Miss Earth pageant is an international competition that hopes to raise awareness on environmental issues. Its winners and participants are dubbed “beauties for a cause” who are expected to work on helping save the environment, and inspiring others to follow a more earth-friendly lifestyle.
This year, the Philippines will be represented by pageant veteran and medical laboratory scientist Yllana Marie Aduana in the competition. She will attempt to sustain the country’s status as the most successful nation in the contest by being the fifth Filipino woman to capture the title, following Karla Henry, Jamie Herrell, Angelia Ong, and Karen Ibasco.
Mina Sue Choi, the first Miss Earth winner from Korea, will relinquish her international title to her successor who will be crowned at the culmination of the Dec. 22 competition. EDV