Festivals & Events

Everything you need to know about festivals and events in Chiang Mai. A comprehensive collection of articles, guides, pictures and reviews written by the festive people who live here.

By | Thu 12 Mar 2020

Chiang Mai is the festivals and events capital of Thailand and possibly the whole of Asia. When we do events, we go all in and do them in style.

Let’s start with Songkran, the annual Thai New Year festival held every April. Chiang Mai attracts visitors from all over the world for a water fight that involves a hundred thousand people or more across the entire centre of the city. It is madness and mayhem that lasts for days!

Then there is Yi Peng/LoyKrathong the lunar festival that takes place in November. Pictures of thousands of sky lanterns rising into the dark, night skies are famous worldwide and again draw tens of thousands of visitors annually. The site of the ping river filled with candlelit, beflowered krathongs and the skies filled with fire lanterns is indeed a sight to behold.

Those are the biggies, but by no means all Chiang Mai has to offer. The annual flower and umbrella festivals are colourful and also attended. There are also yearly music festivals and gatherings, both big and small, to enjoy and celebrate life.