Rainbow 1 to Bow as Cabaret; Rainbow 3 Sold for Crazy Price?

Rainbow 1 in Nana Plaza will debut as a ladyboy cabaret in March while Rainbow 2 will bring natural-born women back to the stage in April.

Meanwhile, the Nana Plaza jungle drums were beating Thursday night that Rainbow 3, on the top floor next to Billboard, also has been sold. More on that below.

New Formats for Rainbow 1 & 2

Following the sale of the combined Rainbow on Sunday, the new owner – who also owns four other go-go bars in Bangkok and Pattaya – said Rainbow 1 will become the plaza’s new showbar, like Angelwitch and Spanky’s, but with transgender performers on stage.

Rainbow 2 – which had been somewhat combined with Rainbow 1 following last year’s renovation – will be sealed off again and self-contained as a regular girl go-go bar, the owner said Thursday.

However, it’s difficult to take over and restart two bars at the same time, so Rainbow 2 will remain closed throughout March and reopen before Songkran.

Chinese Tours the Target for Rainbow 1

Rainbow’s new owner, who said she has never seen the shows at Angelwitch or Spanky’s, said Rainbow 1 will be different from other go-go bars in that most of the target audience will come from abroad, specifically China. Her Chinese husband has substantial connections with tour companies in his homeland and will bring tour groups to the bar specifically for the shows. She said she has no interest in enticing customers to barfine the performers.

Likewise, there are no plans for any local or Western-owned social media. While industry leader Digital a-Go-Go has been hired to produce photos and videos, that media will appear only on Chinese social media.

Rainbow 2 a Return to Tradition

Rainbow 2, in the back right corner on the ground floor of Nana Plaza, long had been a favorite of Japanese punters and they will be the target audience again when the go-go reopens with natural-born women on stage in April.

Some of those ladies may come from Ka-Boom on Walking Street in Pattaya, which is stocked with young, slim, pretty girls who are relatively new to the go-go business. That’s exactly the type of girl Japanese guys went to Rainbow 2 to find for decades.

Already, the boss has had some Ka-Boom laides work at Majestics on Soi Cowboy, which started as a ladyboy bar but now has both genders. Majestics likely will return to being ladyboy only with the Pattaya girls joining Rainbow 2 for stints of two weeks to a month at a time.

While Rainbow 2 will welcome anyone and everyone, the marketing push led by Digital a-Go-Go will focus on Japanese customers with Japanese-language social media posts.

Rainbow 3 Sold?

Rainbow 1 and 2 was being shopped by Nana Plaza’s largest tenant for a whopping 40 million baht, with combined rent of 800,000 baht a month. The bars sold for substantially less, however,

Ironically, the new owner had first approached the Rainbow group about the top-floor Rainbow 3, but walked away when told it would cost 12 million baht.

The Nana rumor mill Thursday night, however, was abuzz with word that an unknown buyer had taken Rainbow 3 for a mind-blowing 17 million baht.

Time will tell if that rumor proves true and is someone fell for such a large price tag for a relatively tiny bar.