As Chiang Mai Festival City project heads to Edinburgh Festival for the third year next week, Citylife (who is not going this year, after having self-funded our attendance in the first two years) wishes the delegation well and we can’t wait to hear all of the updates.
The Chiang Mai Festival City concept was initiated by Chiang Mai Citylife in the early 1990s when Editor-in-Chief Pim Kemasingki was studying at Edinburgh University and her father, John Shaw MBE, was both then-editor of this publication as well as the Honorary British Consul. Many meetings were held with the governor, mayor and heads of departments such a s TAT, at the time. But it was decided that Chiang Mai simply didn’t have the resources then to be able to pull off such an ambitious project. Over the years, both father and daughter tried to keep the conversation going about the idea to create a large-scale one-month long festival in Chiang Mai, emulating the Edinburgh model. And it wasn’t until Honorary British Consul Ben Svasti Thomson, MBE, began to pick up on the idea, that things began to move forward.
In 2023 a large self-funded delegation including the Presidents of Payap and Chiang Mai Universities, the Deputy President of Rajamangala University as well as the President of the Chamber of Commerce, joined Ben and Pim—and later, Mayor Assanee Buranupakorn who visited the festival during his honeymoon, going so far as to wake up at 5am to inspect the garbage collection across the city—spent an intense week meeting heads of various festivals as well as relevant organisations which run the festivals, from the City Council to the Visit Scotland and Creative Scotland offices.
The following year, we returned, this time joined by the Governor and the Mayor, and continued talks. Not much was published upon our return last year, as we headed straight into the floods and both the mayor and the governor asked us not to publish content from the festival as it could cause a distraction. We decided to wait to publish this year, before the new delegation heads over and there will be more videos to come.
The British Council, under the initiation of Ben Svasti Thomson has also sponsored important meetings here in Thailand, by bringing in important figures from the UK to hold workshops with interested groups here in Chiang Mai.
The festival project may appear to be moving at a sluggish pace, but it is a hugely ambitious initiative which requires a mind-boggling number of moving parts. We will keep you updated as more information is provided.
At this point, Chiang Mai Festival City has been officially integrated into Chiang Mai Province’s long term strategy.
Here is a previously unpublished video from last year, where Citylife interviews Governor Nirat Pongsitthaworn after a fruitful meeting at the Lord Provost Office on the Royal Mile.
As a side note, it has just been announced that the governor is to leave Chiang Mai to become the Director-General of the Department of Provincial Administration.