Even as the Umno delegates were seriously engaged in debating major amendments to the party's constitution yesterday, their venue the Putra World Trace Centre, also saw a fiesta as though celebrating the event.

NONE Delegates thronged the halls in a sea of red, all dressed to kill. The men in colourful baju Melayus with most tudung-clad women in baju kurung.

The Umno president himself looked dashing in his sea blue baju Melayu.

All seemed to be infected by the 1Malaysia fever, carrying specially designed 1Umno bags.

The business booths spread out like mushrooms after heavy rain.

There were even stalls located next to the Sri Pacific Hotel, where Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin and Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin played hosts for an Aidilfitri luncheon.

Business was brisk as an optical company on the first floor offered a special discount of 70 percent for the delegates.

"The profits that I get are higher even though our company is offering huge discounts," said a sales representatives there.

Spirit of fun spills over

There were even stalls that sold perfume from France and the Middle East. The owner was offering 50 percent discounts pricing the perfumes at RM75 per bottle.

He, however, complained that the rental for the stall was RM3,000 for the entire period.

NONE Apart from Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia , other newspapers such as The Sun , New Straits Times and Kosmo were also distributed free to the delegates and the media.

The euphoria from the halls also spilled out.

Seremban Umno delegate, Ishak Ismail's antics recorded on DVDs went for RM10 per copy. They flew off the shelves. Most were tickled to the ribs listening to him poking fun at Umno's top echeleon.

Apart from businesses, government departments and ministries also set up their rooms and booths to reach out to people at the PWTC.

NONE The Wanita and Puteri wings on their part had organised a blood donation campaign aside from another to raise funds for the recent Padang earthquake victims.

A grassroots Umno member from Kepala Batas who has been with the party for 30 years said with a smile, "I just arrived this morning. We chartered nine buses from Kepala Batas to KL just for this event."