The best things to do in Phuket this weekend (October 15-18)

Ron Poe dials up the energy at Armania Phuket this Friday. The Filipino DJ-producer has spent more than a decade behind the decks, mixing electro, EDM, house and open-format mash-ups with an instinct for reading the room. Armania’s international resident is back on Bangla Road for a late-night session billed around house and tech-house, with big beats and familiar tunes worked into the mix. Bring your dancing shoes.

Oct 16. From B3,000; check what’s included with the venue before booking. Ron Poe at Armania Phuket, 11 Bangla Road, Patong. 10pm-4am. Ages 21+ 

Into wine dinners and got cash to burn? JAMPA x Blackbird’s Spanish Wine Dinner pairs the restaurant’s farm-to-table, open-flame cooking with five wines spanning Rioja Alavesa, Catalunya and the coastal vineyards of the Basque Country. The line-up includes 2021 Valserrano Crianza, while the four-course menu starts with blue shrimp, jampooling and heirloom tomato, followed by beetroot, lotus root and kuro beurre blanc. Sound like a vegan dinner? Nah, far from it: free-range chicken comes with makhwaen and broccolini, before banana, date and quince pear round things off. Book a table at JAMPA’s home in Tri Vananda, Thalang, for an evening of Spanish wines and a distinctly local menu.

Oct 15. B3,500++ per person. JAMPA x Blackbird Spanish Wine Dinner, JAMPA Restaurant, Tri Vananda, Thalang. From 7pm. Reservations: 076 342 122

Forget the bananas – come for the sunset. Banana Beach Club by Sollis 2.0, on Phuket’s mainland near Layan, has white sand, coconut trees and longtail boats to set the scene while the sky turns orange. Saturday’s Big Community Sunset adds music and a fire show at 7pm, with B500 entry including one cocktail from the special menu. Settle into the beach-club setting with sunbeds and cabanas nearby, and let the afternoon stretch into the evening. This is the Banana Beach in Thalang, so make sure your map isn’t sending you to Koh Hey.

Oct 17. B500 entry, including one cocktail from the special menu. Big Community Sunset at Banana Beach Club, Banana Beach Club by Sollis 2.0, near Layan, Thalang. From 4pm; fire show at 7pm

CLC Phuket’s Icons of Style Hollywood Party treats the stage as a screen and the dining room as part of the action. Dinner starts at 6pm, with à la carte dishes or a chef-selected menu, followed by music at 7pm and showtime at 8pm. Rather than retelling Moulin Rouge!, Pulp Fiction, The Godfather or Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the production borrows cinematic glamour with singers and dancers appearing among the tables and drawing guests into the scene. Jazz gives way to rock-n’roll and saxophone, while the lighting shifts from soft gold to deep red. Expect live vocals, choreography and audience interaction, followed by a faster soundtrack and a dance floor you can claim for yourself. Advance booking is required.

Oct 16. Budget from B2,000++ per person; confirm dinner and show charges when booking. Hollywood Party, Icons of Style, CLC Phuket, Soi Cherngtalay 4. Dinner from 6pm, music from 7pm, show at 8pm; open until late. Reservations 063 205 1000

European cooking meets Thai produce when Chef Hamish from Michelin-starred Aulis Phuket takes over Mrs B Bar & Table for one night. Having grown up in England and trained at Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume, he now draws on local ingredients for dishes that put his European grounding to work. The five-course menu includes mackerel tartare, mushroom-stuffed chicken and charred king oyster mushrooms, finishing with Phang Nga jasmine rice pudding and local farm mulberries. Full Moon Dark Ale, a dark craft beer, is the suggested accompaniment. Book ahead for the Saturday dinner.

Oct 17. B2,850++ per person. Chef Hamish kitchen takeover, Mrs B Bar & Table, 19/1 Lagoon Road, Boat Avenue, Cherngtalay. From 7pm. Reservations: 093 586 98 28

Zimbabwean DJ-producer Nitefreak has been shaping his sound since 2009, bringing a melodic, percussive and emotionally charged approach to afro-house with a progressive edge. His releases with Francis Mercier, support from Black Coffee, Keinemusik and Bedouin, and millions of streams have carried that sound well beyond Zimbabwe. He also co-founded Afroholic Records and earned a place in 1001Tracklist’s’ ‘Future of Dance 2022’ selection. Friday brings him to Roots at Café del Mar Phuket’s Clubroom for a night of African drum rhythms, tightly wound grooves, vocals and futuristic synths. Rally your mates for this one.

Oct 16. B500 final-release tickets; free ladies’ pass by RSVP, subject to availability. Nitefreak at Roots, Café del Mar Phuket, Clubroom, Kamala. 10pm-late. Ages 20+. Online-ticket check-in closes at 12.30am

Every autumn, Phuket turns to one of Thailand’s most extraordinary religious celebrations: the Phuket Vegetarian Festival. From October 10-18, Chinese shrines across the island mark the Nine Emperor Gods Festival with purification rituals, street processions, firecrackers and strict dietary observance, while many devotees dress in white and abstain from meat, alcohol and other indulgences. 

The most arresting sights involve the ma song, spirit mediums who enter trance states and may pierce their cheeks with skewers and other objects. Firewalking and other ritual ordeals also feature at participating shrines. It can be confronting, but this is a living religious tradition rather than a spectacle staged for visitors, so watch respectfully and give processions room. For an easier introduction, follow the crowds around Phuket Town’s Chinese shrines and snack your way through the enormous spread of jay vegan food. Street processions gather pace later in the festival, with major routes including Jui Tui on October 16 and Kathu on October 17. 

Oct 10-18. Free. Phuket Vegetarian Festival, shrines and locations across Phuket. Ceremony times vary by shrine.

Into spirits? The drinkable kind? Head to The Distillery Phuket for an insider look at how Chalong Bay Rum and other small-batch tipples are made, from raw sugarcane to snifter cup. This is no backstreet operation – this is a proper guided tour through the working distillery, with stops for tasting along the way. Sure, you can sip Chalong Bay at many bars along the beach, but sampling yet-to-be-bottled rums, gins and vodkas while learning the basics behind distilling and cocktail-making adds new ‘depth’ to the glass. Plenty of swirling and sipping happens here, and maybe a few ‘just one more’ moments to be found as well. 

 Daily. B1,290. The Distillery Phuket. 11am-10pm