Thai Festival Finder
Thailand runs a festival somewhere almost every week. These are the ones worth planning a trip around — with real dates, where they happen, how to get there, and what they are actually like.
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Bo Sang Umbrella Festival
Chiang Mai · Third weekend of January (TBC)
The umbrella-making village of Bo Sang hangs itself with hand-painted parasols for one weekend each January.
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Chiang Mai Flower Festival
Chiang Mai · 5–7 February
Enormous floats built entirely from flowers parade through Chiang Mai on the first weekend of February.
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Chinese New Year in Bangkok
Bangkok · 6–7 February
Bangkok's Chinatown closes its main road for lion dances, red lanterns and three days of eating.
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MotoGP Thailand
Buriram · Late February or early March (TBC)
The Thailand Grand Prix brings MotoGP to Buriram in Isaan, usually as the season opener.
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Poy Sang Long
Mae Hong Son · Late March to mid April (TBC)
Shan boys are dressed in jewels and silk and carried shoulder-high through Mae Hong Son before entering the monkhood.
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World Wai Kru Muay Thai Ceremony
Ayutthaya · Mid-March (TBC)
Muay Thai practitioners from dozens of countries gather in Ayutthaya to pay respects to their teachers in mass ceremony.
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Phra Pradaeng Songkran
Samut Prakan · The weekend after 13–15 April (TBC)
The Mon community of Samut Prakan keeps an older, quieter Songkran the weekend after the national holiday.
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S2O Songkran Music Festival
Bangkok · 11–13 April (TBC)
A ticketed EDM festival in Bangkok that turns Songkran's water into a stage production.
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Songkran
Nationwide · 13–15 April
Thai New Year, three days in April, when the entire country takes to the streets with buckets and hoses.
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Wan Lai (Pattaya Songkran)
Pattaya · 16–19 April
Chonburi province runs its own Songkran days after the national holiday ends, finishing with Pattaya's Beach Road on 19 April.
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Bangkok Pride
Bangkok · 28 May – 1 June
Half a million people march a five-kilometre route from Silom to Siam in Southeast Asia's largest Pride celebration.
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Bun Bang Fai Rocket Festival
Yasothon · Mid-May (TBC)
Isaan fires homemade rockets several metres long into the sky each May to demand rain from the sky god.
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Phi Ta Khon Ghost Festival
Dan Sai · June or early July (TBC)
Villagers in Dan Sai wear towering carved masks and parade as spirits through three days of music, mischief and merit-making.
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Ubon Ratchathani Candle Festival
Ubon Ratchathani · 18–19 July (TBC)
Vast carved beeswax floats are paraded through Ubon Ratchathani to mark the start of Buddhist Lent.
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Bangkok Vegetarian Festival
Bangkok · 10–18 October
Nine days when Bangkok's Chinatown goes fully vegan — over a hundred jay food stalls on Yaowarat, shrine ceremonies and a deity procession.
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Naga Fireballs
Nong Khai · 26 October
On one night each October, silent glowing orbs rise out of the Mekong river. Nobody has satisfactorily explained why.
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Phuket Vegetarian Festival
Phuket · 10–18 October
Nine days of trance processions, body piercing and firewalking in Phuket Town, alongside the strictest vegan eating in Thailand.
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Loy Krathong
Nationwide · 25 November
On the full moon of the twelfth lunar month, Thailand sets millions of candle-lit baskets adrift on its rivers, canals and lakes.
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Monkey Buffet Festival
Lopburi · 29 November
Lopburi lays several tonnes of fruit and sweets across ancient temple grounds and lets two thousand macaques loose on it.
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Pattaya International Fireworks Festival
Pattaya · 27–28 November
International pyrotechnics teams compete over Pattaya Bay across two nights, watched from the length of Beach Road.
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River Kwai Bridge Week
Kanchanaburi · Late November into early December (TBC)
Eleven nights of light, sound and pyrotechnics at the Death Railway bridge, telling the story of its construction and destruction.
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Surin Elephant Round-Up
Surin · 19–21 November
Hundreds of elephants gather in Surin each November for processions, a famous breakfast buffet and stadium shows.
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Yi Peng Lantern Festival
Chiang Mai · 24–25 November
The Lanna sky lantern festival in Chiang Mai — the source of Thailand's most famous photograph, and the one most often misunderstood.
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New Year Countdown in Bangkok
Bangkok · 31 December
Bangkok sees in the new year with fireworks along the Chao Phraya and a street party at CentralWorld.
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Wonderfruit
Pattaya · 3–7 December
A four-day music, art and food festival built from bamboo on farmland outside Pattaya.
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Full Moon Party
Koh Phangan · Monthly, on the full moon
Tens of thousands of travellers fill a single beach on Koh Phangan every month for Thailand's most famous party.