Stories here and here. March 31 to April 6 in the pleasant town of Chiang Saen, which lies on the banks of the Mekong River just across from Laos. Sadly, I shan’t make it this year.
Not only do circumstances prevent me from attending, but also the old team has broken up. There is one team that sometimes looks for new players. Called Tickle and the Ivories, their website is here. I may apply next year. Unfortunately, I’ll be having shoulder surgery in a few months’ time, and I don’t know how that will affect my playing ability.
The tournament is quite a sight, though, and I recommend it to anyone. The elephants seem to have a lot of fun, and a lot of money has been raised through the tournament for elephant causes.
do people run onto the field to fix the grass or is it a lost cause?
No, the grass remains unscathed. But they do have people to run out and remove the elephant droppings, which are rather large. Elephant manure is much sought after, too; excellent fertilizer.
BTW: Elephants are a wonder of nature’s engineering. Their feet actually exert less pressure per square inch than an antelope’s foot. (That’s pressure, not force.) And they can use their trunk to pick up a log or a pencil. Marvelous animals.
I’ve read the foot-pressure factoid in many sources. This one here looks good:
“What exerts more pressure-per-square inch when walking a 100 lb woman in high heels or a 6,000 lb elephant in bare feet? [At the moment when only the heel rests on the ground.] Ask teams to tackle this challenge. (Stiletto heels have an area of about 1/16 of a square inch. Elephants, unlike humans, walk with two feet on the ground at a time. Each foot is about 40 square inches. Thus, the woman “wins” by far more than 1,500 psi versus 75 psi.)”