By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
The Full Moon Party has become a rite of passage for young Westerners travelling to Thailand - but these pictures reveal the event is not necessarily fun for everyone.
The photos were taken this week during the latest instalment of the monthly party on the island of Koh Phangan, which is attended nearly exclusively by tourists.
They show how travellers snap up buckets containing bottles of spirits as well as mixers for as little as 150 baht (£3) each.
After a day of eating and drinking on the heavenly beaches, the party really gets going when the sun sets and revellers don glowing face paint to create a striking scene.
But the end, when it comes, is much less pretty - each month, dozens of Westerners who have over-indulged in drink and drugs are treated in medical clinics.
Party time! Hundreds of Western travellers attended the full moon party in Koh Phangan in Thailand this week
Getting ready: Two young women shop for headgear at the start of the party
Welcome: Entry to the full moon party for curious tourists costs just 100 baht (£2)
Tradition: Koh Phangan has been one of Thailand's top tourist destinations since the founding of the full moon party in 1985
Hedonistic: Spirits and mixers are sold by the bucket for the equivalent of as little as £3
Discount: The availability of exceptionally cheap alcohol is one of the main draws for many Western students and young people
Sumptuous: A touch of class at the party is provided by the selection of cheap snacks cooked fresh on a beachside grill
Excitement: Two Japanese women dressed in exotic costumes soak up the late-night atmosphere at the monthly event
Atmospheric: The elaborate facepaint donned by some of the more imaginative partygoers provides a festive air
Foolish: One party trick is to set a skipping rope on fire and then jump over it without getting burned
Trippy: It is possible that revellers thought they were hallucinating when they saw surreal sights like this
Limbo! A man lights a cigarette off a burning log as he shows off his flexibility to the other tourists
Enthusiasm: Revellers marked themselves with logos showing just how excited they were to be attending the event
They'll never forget: Nathan Pinkus, from Sydney gets a moon tattooed on his finger as Lauren McCudden feeds him from a bucket of alcohol
Until we hit the ground and pass out: An overwhelmed reveller catches 40 winks towards the end of the party
Tired and emotional: Another exhausted partygoer, surrounded by empty bottles of beer, takes time out from the celebration
Passion: A couple snuggles as the sun rises above the revels at the monthly event on Koh Phangan
Chillaxing: The party became slightly less raucous with the onset of dawn but not everyone was ready for bed yet
He won't stop: This partygoer took to a water slide after the sun rose as he defied the advent of the dawn
Irrepressible: Scottish tourist Jamie Harris drinks from a bottle of beer even as he sits on the treatment table after injuring his foot
Agony: Mr Harris groans as medics tend to the foot that he injured at the decadent party
Care: A nurse at the Bandon International Hospital looks after Briton Lawrence Tan after he fractured his back falling off a stage
Out for the count: Travellers from China slump at the side of the road and try to recover from their exertions
Shipping out: Revellers, one of whom was injured in a motorbike accident, take the ferry back to the mainland from Koh Phangan
Treatment: The injured man was put on a drip as soon as the boat landed on Koh Samui
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