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What’s on in Thailand

Festivals, holidays and the days the bars close. Most Thai festivals follow the lunar calendar, so the dates move every year — these are the ones we have verified.

Next alcohol-ban days

Shops, bars and restaurants stop selling alcohol nationwide on Buddhist holy days. Supermarkets rope off the aisle. Plan around these.

Next up

The view from the John-Suwan viewpoint on Ko Tao: a granite ridge thick with coconut palms dividing two turquoise bays, small boats moored off the beach on the left, resort roofs scattered through the jungle and green hills running back to the horizon.
On nowMusic

Full Moon Party

A monthly all-night beach party at Haad Rin that has been running since the late 1980s and shows its age

26 September 2026 · Haad Rin Beach, Koh Phangan

October 2026

A street procession during the Phuket Vegetarian Festival: devotees dressed head to toe in white walk down the road, led by an entranced devotee in red and gold robes hung with marigold garlands who carries a black banner and has a thin skewer through his cheek, past a yellow shopfront strung with red and blue ceremonial poles.
In 2 weeksReligious

Phuket Vegetarian Festival

Nine days of strict vegan observance in Phuket's Hokkien-Chinese community, punctuated by public self-mortification

10–18 October 2026 · Phuket Town, Kathu

Wat Arun floodlit at dusk on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, its tiered central prang and four satellite spires glowing gold against a deep blue sky, with the temple's light doubled in the dark water below.
In 2 weeksPublic holiday

King Bhumibol Memorial Day

The anniversary of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's death — a solemn public holiday, not a celebration

13 October 2026 · Nationwide

The ruined brick chedi of Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai rising in stepped tiers against a clear blue sky, with a naga-flanked stairway climbing its flank, small coloured flags along the base and the white and gold eaves of the viharn at the right of frame.
In 4 weeksReligiousNo alcohol sales

Ork Phansa

The end of the rains retreat — boat races on the Mekong, alms at dawn, and the naga fireballs at Nong Khai

26 October 2026 · Nationwide, Nong Khai

The view from the John-Suwan viewpoint on Ko Tao: a granite ridge thick with coconut palms dividing two turquoise bays, small boats moored off the beach on the left, resort roofs scattered through the jungle and green hills running back to the horizon.
In 4 weeksMusic

Full Moon Party

A monthly all-night beach party at Haad Rin that has been running since the late 1980s and shows its age

27 October 2026 · Haad Rin Beach, Koh Phangan

November 2026

Farmland in Phu Ruea district, Loei province in Isaan: rough grass and rows of young maize in the foreground, broadleaf trees standing along the field edges and a long forested hill on the horizon under heavy white cloud.
In 8 weeksCultural

Surin Elephant Round-up

Two hundred elephants and their mahouts gather in an Isaan town for the largest elephant event in Thailand

19–21 November 2026 · Surin town, Surin Elephant Show Stadium

A Loi Krathong ceremony at a Chiang Mai temple after dark: rows of monks in orange robes seated among hundreds of small candle flames, beneath tiers of glowing yellow, red and blue paper lanterns strung through the trees, with one monk standing in the foreground.
In 8 weeksFestival

Loy Krathong

One night in November when the whole country floats a candlelit offering down the nearest water

24 November 2026 · Nationwide, Bangkok

A crowd at the Yi Peng festival in Chiang Mai holding up glowing white paper sky lanterns, with a long trail of already-released lanterns climbing across the dark sky towards a bright moon behind thin cloud.
In 8 weeksFestival

Yi Peng Lantern Festival

The Lanna sky-lantern tradition of the north — and the most heavily managed, most photographed festival in Thailand

24–25 November 2026 · Chiang Mai, Lamphun

The view from the John-Suwan viewpoint on Ko Tao: a granite ridge thick with coconut palms dividing two turquoise bays, small boats moored off the beach on the left, resort roofs scattered through the jungle and green hills running back to the horizon.
In 8 weeksMusic

Full Moon Party

A monthly all-night beach party at Haad Rin that has been running since the late 1980s and shows its age

24 November 2026 · Haad Rin Beach, Koh Phangan

29 November 2026Cultural

Lopburi Monkey Buffet Festival

Several tonnes of fruit laid out on banquet tables for the macaques that have effectively annexed a provincial town

29 November 2026 · Phra Prang Sam Yot, Lopburi

December 2026

The night procession at the Yasothon rocket festival in Isaan: ornate gilded ceremonial floats with tiered spires lining both sides of the street under strings of festoon lights, with a dense crowd of spectators filling the road between them.
3–7 December 2026Music

Wonderfruit

Five days of music, architecture, food and earnest sustainability programming in a field outside Pattaya

3–7 December 2026 · The Fields at Siam Country Club, Pattaya, Chonburi

10 December 2026Public holiday

Constitution Day

Commemorating Thailand's first constitution in 1932 — twenty constitutions ago

10 December 2026 · Nationwide, Democracy Monument, Bangkok

The view from the John-Suwan viewpoint on Ko Tao: a granite ridge thick with coconut palms dividing two turquoise bays, small boats moored off the beach on the left, resort roofs scattered through the jungle and green hills running back to the horizon.
24 December 2026Music

Full Moon Party

A monthly all-night beach party at Haad Rin that has been running since the late 1980s and shows its age

24 December 2026 · Haad Rin Beach, Koh Phangan

The view from the John-Suwan viewpoint on Ko Tao: a granite ridge thick with coconut palms dividing two turquoise bays, small boats moored off the beach on the left, resort roofs scattered through the jungle and green hills running back to the horizon.
31 December 2026Music

Full Moon Party

A monthly all-night beach party at Haad Rin that has been running since the late 1980s and shows its age

31 December 2026 · Haad Rin Beach, Koh Phangan

Bangkok's Sukhumvit district after dark, seen from above: a dense field of lit office and condominium towers stretching to the horizon, with illuminated billboards and neon shopfronts glowing at street level.
31 December – 1 January 2026Public holiday

New Year

The Gregorian new year, observed as a public holiday and treated as the second-biggest travel week of the year

31 December – 1 January 2026 · Nationwide, Bangkok

February 2027

A Thai night market lit by dozens of warm paper lanterns strung in long rows overhead, with clothing and food stalls under white canopies behind, a brightly painted mural along the far wall and shoppers resting at moulded plastic chairs in the foreground.
6 February 2027Cultural

Chinese New Year

Not a public holiday, but the week Bangkok's Chinatown and half the country's shophouses shut for family

6 February 2027 · Bangkok (Yaowarat), Nakhon Sawan

Four monks in orange robes standing with their alms bowls on a bamboo raft being poled along the green Phachi river, a woman in a red hill-tribe tunic carrying a woven back-basket beside them, with dense forest rising from the bank behind and their reflections stretching across the water.
21 February 2027ReligiousNo alcohol sales

Makha Bucha

The first of the year's dry days — a public holiday, and no alcohol sold anywhere outside a hotel

21 February 2027 · Nationwide

April 2027

Songkran on Si Lom Road in Bangkok seen from above at night: the closed road packed with people carrying water pistols, pink-canopied stalls and pavement vendors selling more water guns, and the wet red and orange crossing markings shining under the streetlights.
13–15 April 2027Festival

Songkran

The Thai new year — three official days of temple visits, family duty and the largest water fight on earth

13–15 April 2027 · Nationwide, Bangkok

May 2027

Wat Arun floodlit at dusk on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, its tiered central prang and four satellite spires glowing gold against a deep blue sky, with the temple's light doubled in the dark water below.
4 May 2027Public holiday

Coronation Day

The anniversary of King Vajiralongkorn's coronation in May 2019

4 May 2027 · Nationwide, Grand Palace, Bangkok

The interior of the ubosot at Wat Ratchabophit in Bangkok, looking down the nave to the Buddha image at the far end beneath an unusual Gothic-style vaulted ceiling covered in gilded tracery, lit by hanging lamps.
20 May 2027ReligiousNo alcohol sales

Visakha Bucha

The most important day in the Buddhist year, and the second of Thailand's five statutory dry days

20 May 2027 · Nationwide

June 2027

3 June 2027Public holiday

HM Queen Suthida's Birthday

A public holiday for the Queen's birthday, added to the calendar in 2019

3 June 2027 · Nationwide

July 2027

Four monks in orange robes standing with their alms bowls on a bamboo raft being poled along the green Phachi river, a woman in a red hill-tribe tunic carrying a woven back-basket beside them, with dense forest rising from the bank behind and their reflections stretching across the water.
18 July 2027ReligiousNo alcohol sales

Asalha Bucha

The Buddha's first sermon, and the first half of Thailand's only back-to-back two-day alcohol ban

18 July 2027 · Nationwide

The interior of the ubosot at Wat Ratchabophit in Bangkok, looking down the nave to the Buddha image at the far end beneath an unusual Gothic-style vaulted ceiling covered in gilded tracery, lit by hanging lamps.
19 July 2027ReligiousNo alcohol sales

Khao Phansa

The start of the three-month rains retreat — and the day Ubon Ratchathani parades giant carved beeswax candles

19 July 2027 · Nationwide, Ubon Ratchathani

October 2027

Wat Arun floodlit at dusk on the west bank of the Chao Phraya, its tiered central prang and four satellite spires glowing gold against a deep blue sky, with the temple's light doubled in the dark water below.
13 October 2027Public holiday

King Bhumibol Memorial Day

The anniversary of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's death — a solemn public holiday, not a celebration

13 October 2027 · Nationwide

The ruined brick chedi of Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai rising in stepped tiers against a clear blue sky, with a naga-flanked stairway climbing its flank, small coloured flags along the base and the white and gold eaves of the viharn at the right of frame.
15 October 2027ReligiousNo alcohol sales

Ork Phansa

The end of the rains retreat — boat races on the Mekong, alms at dawn, and the naga fireballs at Nong Khai

15 October 2027 · Nationwide, Nong Khai

November 2027

A Loi Krathong ceremony at a Chiang Mai temple after dark: rows of monks in orange robes seated among hundreds of small candle flames, beneath tiers of glowing yellow, red and blue paper lanterns strung through the trees, with one monk standing in the foreground.
13 November 2027Festival

Loy Krathong

One night in November when the whole country floats a candlelit offering down the nearest water

13 November 2027 · Nationwide, Bangkok

December 2027

10 December 2027Public holiday

Constitution Day

Commemorating Thailand's first constitution in 1932 — twenty constitutions ago

10 December 2027 · Nationwide, Democracy Monument, Bangkok

Every event we cover

41 verified dates across 22 events. Where we could not verify a year’s date against an official source, we describe the rule instead of guessing.