Festival for love and hugs to celebrate the vibrant Khao San Road,an exuberant touristic community in the heart of Bangkok
The Tourism Authority of Thailand in conjunction with the Kaho San Road Community are excited to announce the Smile@Khao San Road Festival this weekend on September 11th and 12th from 4pm to midnight both days.
With the recent political turmoil behind us the Tourism authority wants to draw attention to all the tourist area’s of Bangkok and restore the traveling public’s confidence in the Khao San Road area. The also want to highlight just how important Khao San Road is as a gateway to so many of Bangkok’s hottest tourist attractions. Khao San road in and of itself is known by travelers and expats alike around the globe as one of Bangkok’s most famous roads to shop eat or just relax and enjoy some time with friends.
Anyone that has been to Khao San Road knows just how cool of an atmosphere it has and this weekend should be a blast with all sorts of musical entertainment as well as shows,exhibitions and great food and drink. Among the musical acts performing this weekend will be:
Alongside the music there will be street shows on Soi Rambuttri, Chakkrabong Road and Khao San Road featuring exhibitions of Thai classical dance, music, puppet shows and folk singing.
The highlight of the festival will be a “Free Hugs” contest, and a special “Hug Thailand” contest, which together offer prizes worth more than one million Baht, including 60 free package tours and 560 free “9 Temple” sightseeing tours designed to allow participants to “make merit” by paying respect to Buddha statues at 9 key Buddhist temples situated along the Chao Phya River.
One of the best parts of the festival I think will be fine dining on Chakkrabong Road, with a selection of cuisine from the best restaurants in Bangkok’s 50 districts. Also expect “grand sales” from local businesses! Festival visitors who buy goods or services from shops in the area that are associated with Smile@Khao San Road will be eligible to enter raffle competitions and visitors who participate in quizzes and other activities get a free “Smile@Khao San Road” t-shirt (2,000 only).
The Tourism Authority of Thailand wants you to know it’s safe to come back to Khao San Road and Bangkok and the Smile@Khao San Road Festival sounds like a great kick off. This should be an awesome festival so don’t miss out on it.
For more upcoming events and festivals throughout Thailand please check out the Thailand Events Calender.
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Never have been to Khao San Road at night but heard it is a very festive place and many Thai girls wanting to meet foreign men go there.
I hope to visit there on my next trip.
Joe, Khao San is packed at night but you’ll see many more white women backpackers getting their hair braided…
Talen I really must be getting old. I hate the place. Whenever I have been (4 times)its been full of drunken young men and women from all over the world partying like there is no tomorrow.
Its also way overrated and over priced for accommodation and eating.
Sorry to sound so negative but its certainly one festival I would miss if I was BKK based.
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Mike, I have never cared for it much either…very dirty and some real oddballs about but this festival could be a good one. Just the food and entertainment alone should have the whole area packed both days.
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I have great memories of Khao San because it was the first place I came to in Thailand. I used to visit there quite a lot but haven’t been in years. I like the fact that there are some great second-hand book shops there – or at least there were.
Paul, last I checked there was still at least one second hand book store there but it’s been a year since my last visit there.
This is the first blog I read on my new Iphone. I signed up to the rss feed.
For the past two years I’ve gone to Khao San for Songkran. Before that, I avoided the area because of what I’d read.
Khao San really is a unique place to take photos of wild and wooly characters so I’ll keep going back.
But I won’t go to this festival for the same reason I didn’t go to TAT’s other SMILE event.
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