It was 20 years ago this year that the first Citylife Garden Fair was held; an ad hoc last minute request to our advertising clients to come and open booths and to our readers to come visit and support our efforts, so that we could raise money to help victims of the 2004 tsunami.
We raised 40,000 baht together, piled necessities onto a truck and sent it all down south.
Over the years we have come together to raise millions of baht, all of which has gone to support local charities chosen by an independent committee of volunteers.
This year, our 20th, we have already booked 350 booths to the fair, each will be selling and promoting their food, drinks, services, goods, arts, crafts, antiques, activities and all manner of products and services. This is an opportunity to visit your favourite businesses in Chiang Mai as well as to get to know exciting up and coming and emerging enterprises and initiatives. We expect over 10,000 visitors to the fair this year and have been working with our location partner, Boonthavorn, to spruce up and prepare the gardens to optimise the experience for all visitors.
There will be food and drinks zones, live music performed by Chiang Mai’s many Thai and international bands and an assortment of fun activities. Tourism Authority of Thailand, a main and ongoing supporter of our annual fair, is opening a wellness booth and I Love Flower Farm is building us a spectacular floral archway to jazz things up!
We will be working with Chiang Mai University to lower our carbon footprint, with a separate article to follow in the coming days where we can provide more information.
While the fair is a bustling BIG DAY OUT for the entire community where families, friends and locals as well as expats and visitors can meet and mingle, it is also a great opportunity for the many stalls and businesses to introduce themselves to you all. But the raison d’être of the Citylife Garden Fair will always be our drive to raise money for local charities. To that end the two beneficiaries of our fundraising this year will be the Chiang Mai Children’s Foundation and the Burma Children Medical Fund, both of whom will have booths at the fair where you can visit and hopefully show your support.
The way that we raise money is by asking or friends and associates in Chiang Mai, and beyond, to kindly donate vouchers, gifts and goods to us so that a group of independent Thai and expatriate volunteers can sell tickets to a raffle/tombola and set up a silent auction (near the stage by the Citylife table) where people can chance and bid on hundreds of items kindly donated. There will also be a live auction at 3.30pm, where our top items will go under the hammer.
We have, to date, received hundreds of vouchers from restaurants, bars, spas, sports facilities, shops, schools, and a great variety of businesses, all of which will be easily won for the purchase of a few tombola/raffle tickets. Our big items are still pouring in, but to date we have accommodation at the Four Seasons Resorts, InterContinental Khao Yai, Anantara, Marriott, Shangri-La, Phu Chaisai Resort, The Sanctuary Koh Phangan, Seaesta Koh Phangan. Villa Tammatari, and so much more. Georg Jensen, Taweepan, Boggy&Thol and Jim Thompson are just some of the brands who have pledged to donate items to us.
We expect the value of donations to exceed half a million baht and can’t wait to see how much we raise with your support.
In the next few days we will be making an announcement about where the pickup and drop off points are regarding the songtaew shuttles and other modes of transportation we may secure, as well as post maps and parking details for your convenience. Though, to be warned, we expect up to 10,000 visitors on the day, so please be aware that parking will be a small challenge (there will be shuttles between car parks and the fair). To that end, we have made a deal with Maxim taxi ordering service. Simply download their app and put in the code CTLGF25 to receive a discount.
We urge you all to please support our charity drives. Buy a raffle/tombola ticket (or ten), bid on fun items in our silent auction and stick around the excitement of the live auction—3.30pm, remember?
We will be partying into the night with all sorts of bars and bands, so make sure you stick around, as our fair will run for a whole whopping 12 hours, from 10am-10pm.
We are so excited, as ever, to be seeing you all again for our BIG DAY OUT and hope that you follow all of our many many exciting updates on our Facebook events page at CitylifeGardenFair2025.
See you there!
