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Las Vegas always has a party going on, but not many are so big that they require multiple locations. CarnaVé 2003 is new kid on block, but event will fit perfectly here: it's a wild, festive celebration that rolls from one hot spot to another in our city that never sleeps. Don't you just hate this town? (Me neither.)

CarnaVé, brainchild of event marketer Gene Dibble, is an international celebration of Latin music and culture. The "Vé" stands for Las Vegas, chosen venue, and "Carna" recalls well-known Carnaval of Rio de Janeiro. Dibble professes ambitious goal of making this event as popular as Carnaval. Oh, and one more thing: "Each year we will come back and create one of biggest parties Las Vegas has ever seen." It's a tall order, but given what I know of Latin American culture, it's just possible.

What's a Las Vegas party without beautiful, poised women dressed to thrill?

Other events at CarnaVé 2003 included: Noches de CarnaVé, CarnaVé Reventón, Moda de CarnaVé, Oasis de CarnaVé and Miss Mesoamerica International Beauty Pageant where over twenty of most beautiful women from Latin America competed for coveted crown.

The Miss Mesoamerica pageant was founded by Francisco Cortez in 1992 as a celebration of Mayan (Central American) culture and beauty, but it quickly grew into a broader international pageant. Now presented in Las Vegas as part of CarnaVé, it includes contestants from all over Latin America. Judging by this year's competitors, I'd say there's a plenty of beauty to go around.

The party began Wednesday, September 10 with "Cine de CarnaVé" and a screening of award-winning bilingual film "Blue Diner" from Puerto Rico. The film event took place at Palms Hotel Casino and was followed by a reception (which, in Las Vegas, means "party") and Q&A with executives from film and industry. "Noches de CarnaVé" continued festivities Thursday and Friday with two dance parties at upscale nightclubs Curve (inside Aladdin Resort Casino) and Venus (in Venetian). Also on Friday was a special publicity event in Venetian: Actor Mario Lopez and musician Tito Puente, Jr. presented a check for $25,000 to Hispanic Scholarship Fund on behalf of CarnaVé, and pageant contestants dazzled crowd with their bright smiles and red evening gowns. The event wasn't given a name, but I would suggest "Ogle de CarnaVé."

"In these shoes? I don't think so!"

These words from a Kirsty MacColl song came to mind as I watched contestants pose on stage wearing sexy bikinis and high heels. You are so not going swimming in those outfits...

Hawaiian Tropic, well-known maker of sun care products, has held regional pageants in Las Vegas for several years, but 2004 International Finals is an even bigger event. A total of 89 contestants came here from around world to compete for title of Miss Hawaiian Tropic 2004. The 21st annual event was held at Treasure Island Hotel Casino, known as "TI" since its extensive renovation last summer. The event included dancing, singing, costumes, evening gowns, and, of course, bikinis.

"Competition swimsuit" and "swimsuit competition" are two very different things. The former is a sturdy suit that stays in place when its wearer is swimming or diving. The latter involves more, uh, minimalist outfits that look like they might not stay on if their wearers waded into pool.

Fortunately — for contestants, anyway — swimsuit competition involved no swimming. Instead, ladies paraded on a poolside stage during preliminaries and on deck of pirate ship Song in front of TI during finals. The preliminary phase also had ladies modeling "country costumes" from places they represented. These ranged from traditional (a European maiden costume, albeit with a sexy garter showing), playful (a modified Canadian Mountie outfit with a miniskirt) to festive (an extravagant Mardi Gras costume with green plumage), to elegant (a satin gown in colors of a country's flag). The regular eveningwear competition took place during finals, along with another swimsuit phase.