CHIAMG MAI FLOWER FESTIVAL

Flowers in Chiang Mai are at their best before the end of the cool season when this festival is held. This falls on the first weekend of February. The center of the festival is the parade held in the morning of Saturday. Floats decorated with flowers illustrate the theme chosen for the year. The beauty queens surrounded by flowers make a magical sight. The flower beds of the public gardens are bathed in colour and special displays are maintained till the end of Sunday.

2012 Chiang Mai flower festival dates
Feb 2012 Dates TBC

SONGKRAN FESTIVAL CHIANG MAI

This festival marks the Thai New Year. If you suffered from a repressed childhood, then Songkran is good therapy. The young at heart arm themselves with anything that can project water and drench all but monks. Down town and around the moats, traffic becomes grid locked as revelers on sidewalks and pickup trucks battle it out. Water throwing goes on for at least 4 days. The Thai New year is also marked with offerings at the temples and parade on the streets of Chiang Mai.

2012 Chiang Mai Songkran dates
April 13th, 14th, 15th
2013 Chiang Mai Songkran dates
April 13th, 14th, 15th

CHIAMG MAI LOI KRATONG

Loi Krathong is the most colourful festival of the year. It takes place over three days of the full moon of the twelfth lunar month which usually falls in November. People generally believe that by releasing floats and balloons they get rid of bad luck and give thanks to the water and heavenly elements. For the three nights of the festival people release small floats known as Krathong with offerings that include incense, candles, flowers and money into the rivers and lakes.. The River Ping becomes a stream of lights floating gently with the current. Small paper hot air balloons rise like lanterns high into the sky complementing the floats drifting on the waters. Fireworks are let off everywhere particularly on the banks of the Ping River and there is a parade each night in Chiang Mai.

2011 Chiang Mai Loi Kratong dates
Nov 2011 TBC

BOSANG UMBRELLA FESTIVAL

Bo Sang Umbrella & Sankampang Handicrafts Festival take place 20th-22nd January at Ban Bo Sang, Sankampang. The festival is in the form of a "street fair" in which the central road of the village is used, with stores on both sides. Stores are decorated in Lanna style, most with the well-known umbrellas, as well as with traditional lanterns. In addition there are contests, exhibitions, cultural performances, local entertainment, and assorted shows day and night. There is a grand procession decorated with umbrellas and local products, a variety of handicrafts for sale, northern-style kantoke meals, and the Miss Bo Sang pageant.

2012 Bosang Umbrella Festival dates
Jan 2012 TBC