Kaweewat Siwanartwong

  Second week of July. The sky still can't make up its mind – overcast, sulking, hinting at rain but never quite committing. The kind of weather that keeps you checking your phone for forecasts that lie. Still, it's dry ‘enough’, and that counts for something. Before the streets turn slick and umbrellas bloom like mushrooms, there’s a weekend to be had. Start with caffeine. The tenth edition of Thailand Coffee Fest returns with its usual procession of grinders, brewers, baristas, roasters and the jittery faithful who love them. Over 200 vendors, talks, workshops, competition nerves and more coffee than anyone sane should consume. Somewhere between the tastings and the lectures, you might realise you’ve been treating your morning cup all wrong. If your idea of worship leans less filter, more flair, then Voices of Broadway might be the necessary pivot. A concert of belted dreams and Side B heartbreaks – Les Mis, Wicked, Hadestown – and quieter songs that rarely get centre stage. The stories behind the songs may cut deeper than the notes themselves. Those with more warehouse than West End in their blood can drift to the Warehouse Flea Market, where grills sizzle, shirts clash and nothing matches until you take it home. Koji's skewers, WAGRill’s smoky bravado, THE WORN’s lived-in tailoring – it’s curated chaos in the best way. And for the night owls, there’s ShioriyBradshaw. Tokyo-rooted, globally wired, her set doesn’t demand your attention – it seduces it. Joined by Bangkok’s G

The first half of the year has seen a steady stream of new store openings across the capital. From flagship debuts and major renovations by global brands to Thai labels expanding into prime department store locations, the city’s fashion scene is evolving. Whether you’re after refined tailoring, functional everyday wear, or street-style staples, there's something for every kind of shopper.  We’ve rounded up the newest must-visit flagships – from bougie Parisian brands to cool Thai labels – that are making shopping feel fun again. Here’s where to head if you’re in the mood to browse, be inspired, or simply want a style upgrade.

Pride month may have closed its curtains, but the city’s cultural pulse shows no sign of slowing. June left us full – of installations, declarations, all the shades that make identity less of a statement and more of a spectrum. But if you thought it ended there, think again. July arrives with a quiet sprawl of exhibitions that ask different questions: about memory, language, loss and the shape of play. Still running is Lost in DOMLAND, Udom Taephanich’s gentle rebellion against the slow disappearance of silliness. It's not comedy, not quite tragedy either – more like a stage whisper from your younger self, reminding you that make-believe was once second nature. That monsters made of cardboard were just as real as the ones we now carry in our heads. Another good one, the Yuyuan Lantern Festival casts Bangkok in a softer light – literally. A first for the city, this chapter of China’s legendary spectacle reimagines ancient creatures from the Shan Hai Jing, their stories pulsing through illuminated paper forms. It’s part folklore, part fever dream. And if you're looking to trade fantasy for abstraction, Calligraphic Abstraction at Bangkok Kunsthalle offers Tang Chang’s trembling lines that blur scripture and spirit, proof that sometimes meaning lives in the unreadable. Then there’s The Shattered World, part of the James H. W. Thompson Foundation’s 50th anniversary programme – an ambitious, multi-site excavation of the Cold War’s lingering ghosts, stretching across the BACC, Jim

July is here, month seven. Just enough past the halfway mark to wonder where the time went, or what exactly we’ve done with it. Did the resolutions stick? Did we drink more water? Read more books? Fall in love a little or at least return a text on time? No pressure. But if things haven’t gone quite to plan, there’s still time. This month, Bangkok feels unusually alive. Not in the loud, glittery sense, but in the quieter, stickier moments that stay with you. On the music front, it’s a trio of emotions: Henry Moodie, whose heartbreak-pop feels like pages torn straight from a diary; Fred Again.., master of nostalgia stitched into club beats; and HONNE, returning with warmth, synths and a mango sticky rice mascot that says more than it should. For more cultural reasons, art spills onto the streets and gallery walls. Thailand Printmaking Festival celebrates the messy, ink-stained joy of DIY expression, swapping polish for process. Bangkok Horror Film Festival asks you to sit in the dark with strangers and your worst fears, then stay for the haunted house and ghost stories from film crews who swear it really happened. At Eat Ramen Fest, you’ll find 16 stalls, four master chefs and a prize for those who can eat their way through five bowls (no judgement). Meanwhile, the Bank of Thailand Learning Centre offers a softer pace with a reading fest: a book fair where you can collect stamps, browse with intention and sit beside the river, ignoring your phone for once. So no, maybe the year

Like most people who tumbled into the glitter-slicked rabbit hole of drag, my gateway was RuPaul’s Drag Race. The show was camp, chaotic and, occasionally, cathartic – and while I adored the performances, what I craved was context. That’s when Yellow Channel found me. Somewhere between a critique and a love letter, the channel offered commentary that felt neither detached nor indulgent. It was opinion with eyeliner – sharp, unblinking and occasionally smudged. Now, I’m staring at the face behind it – Pat (Phatthara Lertsukittipongsa) – via video call, framed by a glittery backdrop that feels more like a curtain call than a coincidence. He’s not just the creator of Yellow Channel. He’s also the mind behind Thailand’s Drag Star, a platform that’s bringing together performers from every corner of the country. Not just the Bangkok icons, but the dreamers from Chantaburi, the showgirls from Nakhon Si Thammarat, the misfits from every corner of Google Maps. Over the course of our conversation, we talk drag as transformation, Bangkok’s unpredictable scene and what makes a truly fabulous night. I also find out what, in his opinion, makes Time Out the best recommendation in town – but that secret’s staying tucked away until the final paragraph. If you’re ready, wig first, read on. Photograph: Yellow Channel How Pat got pulled into drag (without even realising) ‘I used to think RuPaul in drag and RuPaul out of drag were two different people,’ Pat admits with a grin. ‘I didn’t get it

Bangkok’s dining scene never ceases to impress with new restaurants constantly adding fresh energy to the city’s vibrant food landscape. While elegant fine dining establishments often steal the spotlight with their refined menus and impeccable presentation, casual eateries play an equally important role in shaping the city’s culinary identity. From bustling street-side stalls to trendy bistros, these spots capture the capital’s lively spirit through bold flavours, creative concepts and inviting atmospheres. If you’re planning a romantic evening for two, a laid-back family dinner or even a solo food adventure, there’s no shortage of exciting options. The city’s diverse culinary landscape continues to expand, offering everything from Cantonese and French delicacies to comforting Burmese dishes. Whether you’re drawn to modern fusion cuisine or timeless classics, there’s always something new to discover. Discover, book, and save at hundreds of restaurants with Grab Dine Out. Enjoy exclusive discounts, use dining vouchers, and make instant reservations, all in the Grab app. Explore Grab Dine Out now.

From stomach-filling Western classics to quick Thai favourites, here’s our list of places you can fill up for the day.  RECOMMENDED: The best new restaurants that opened this year   Discover, book, and save at hundreds of restaurants with Grab Dine Out. Enjoy exclusive discounts, use dining vouchers, and make instant reservations, all in the Grab app. Explore Grab Dine Out now.

555. No, not the number – though it might as well be the punchline. It's how we laugh in Thai: ha ha ha. It’s also how Lounys, a French-Algerian artist now living in Bangkok, occasionally sneaks humour into his work – a wink to the absurd, a code-switch between languages, cultures and emotions. Born in Paris with Algerian and Berber roots, Lounys is what happens when you fold a handful of cities into one mind: New York, Los Angeles, Miami, a few stops across Europe and now Thailand. His art has appeared across Bangkok, cropping up in galleries and pop-up shows like visual outbursts – provocative, dense, unfiltered. Drawing on satirical cartoons and caricatures, Lounys sketches out modern survival as a warped spectacle. Political figures are stretched, social archetypes distorted, but always with a knowing eye. There’s something dreamlike in his method – automatic, compulsive, channelling the spirit of 1920s surrealism while humming with the colour-fuelled energy of pop art. Photograph: Lounys We asked him a few questions, naturally – about the move, the city, the sprawl of it all. He tells us he’s adapting to Bangkok, slowly. The food, the pace, the people. Bangkok: too hot to hold, too alive to ignore – just like his work.  Looking back, how would you describe the different chapters of your artistic journey so far? What felt like turning points along the way? ‘My journey’s been instinctive – no map, no mentor, just motion. One chapter was solitude, another dialogue. The sh

June arrives like a glitch in the system – a month stitched together by celebration and resistance, identity and exception. It’s the kind of moment where art feels less like decoration and more like a way of breathing.  In Bangkok, art isn’t confined to white cubes or gallery walls. It spills, glitches and stares back. The galleries don’t sleep. The warehouses flicker with light. You’ll find exhibitions in places that feel vaguely illegal and performances that seem like they’ve been dreamt up at 3am by someone who hasn't blinked in days. And maybe that’s enough: to witness, to feel, to not look away. Because art, like identity, was never meant to be tidy. Remember Lost in DOMLAND? That surrealist maze of desire and disorientation that made you feel like you'd stumbled into someone else's subconscious? Or A Cage of Fragile Heart, where tenderness became performance, and vulnerability was something to wear, not hide? That same raw energy pulses through this month’s line-up – less polished, more honest. And while Attack on Titan Final Exhibition gave us collapsing walls and the weight of legacy, and Hit the Road carved out moments of quiet rebellion, June doesn’t look back so much as it fragments forward. It isn’t neat. It doesn’t try to be. Instead, it offers a series of entry points – some loud, others almost imperceptible – into questions of selfhood, memory and what it means to be seen. There’s no single narrative, no tidy moral. Just flashes of truth, stitched together by a

Halfway through 2025 – blink and it’s June. Somehow, we’ve arrived at Pride Month, drenched in both colour and contradiction. It’s a time carved out for queerness, love-drenched, politicised and stubbornly joyful. But this isn’t a parade just for the queer community. It’s a mirror held up to everyone, reminding us that identity is messy, defiant and worth defending. Pride isn’t a party so much as a punctuation mark – a loud, necessary one. So, in a city that’s constantly shedding its skin, what does celebration look like? Bangkok, never one for subtlety, offers up a bit of everything. The Japanese invasion continues – animated and unapologetic – with Naruto The Gallery, Attack on Titan Final Exhibition and the overwhelmingly adorable 100% Doraemon and Friends Tour. Childhood nostalgia dressed as cultural diplomacy? We’re here for it. On the music front, things are getting beautifully chaotic. The Yussef Dayes Experience promises jazz with the edges left on, a kind of spiritual combustion wrapped in broken beats. Meanwhile, Kula Shaker returns, all psychedelic haze and East-meets-West mysticism. And then there’s MNDSGN, that cosmic soul wanderer, bringing his woozy grooves and unreleased material to a city that rarely pauses long enough to listen. He’s asking us to. Film lovers aren’t left out either. Lahn Mah (How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies) – arguably the most talked-about Thai feature in recent memory – gets its moment under the spotlight. It’s a family drama, yes

Some cities ease into you, like a slow morning. Bangkok doesn’t bother. It arrives all at once – humid, glaring, full of movement you can’t quite trace. Steam from a streetside grill blurs into the squeal of a tuk-tuk, incense curls past your ear, and a monk scrolls his phone with the indifference of someone who’s seen it all. The city doesn’t wait. It presses in from every side. Then, there’s Andrei Kostromskikh – better known on Instagram as Kosnio. His photographs seem less like compositions and more like accidents that knew exactly where to land. He walks the city with a camera and an eye for the nearly invisible – the things most people overlook, or choose not to see. His work doesn’t trade in landmarks or spectacle. His images aren’t postcards. They’re something quieter, more private. We find his work the way most people find anything these days – one of those algorithmic gifts the internet occasionally offers up. Naturally, we asked to share his photographs on our platform, and he generously agreed. Photograph: Kosnio When we reach out, he replies with the same understatement that marks his photos. Bangkok, he says, feels strangely familiar – not in any cosy or sentimental way, but like a half-remembered dream. Now, we asked him some questions about his journey and how he sees the capital. Photograph: Kosnio   Would you describe yourself as a visual storyteller rather than simply a photographer? ‘Yeah, I think so. I just try to catch moments that speak for themselv

June rolls in like a rush of neon, sequins and unapologetic joy – Pride is back, loud and proud. But this year carries a weight beyond the usual glitter and dancefloor confessions. Thailand marks its first legal recognition of same-sex marriage, a milestone decades in the making and a quiet revolution writ large across the city’s streets. Over 200,000 people will flood Bangkok, a tidal wave of colour and defiance, each step a statement, each flag a banner of hard-won freedom. The parade isn’t just a party – it’s a procession of resilience, love and history colliding in the most spectacular way. Photograph: Bangkok Pride From the wildest drag to the quietest moments of solidarity, this celebration stretches beyond surface-level exuberance. It’s the culmination of years spent fighting for recognition, for rights, for a space to simply exist without compromise. Bangkok’s roads become a runway of belonging, a stage for every story, every identity, every fierce truth. More than just a date on the calendar, this Pride is a declaration that love – unfiltered, untamed, in all its forms – finally has a home here. While the Bangkok Pride parade remains the highlight, the city hums with other LGBTQ+ events both before and after, making sure the celebration stretches well beyond a single day. So read on – there’s much more to discover. Photograph: Bangkok Pride When is Bangkok Pride? On Sunday June 1, Bangkok’s Pride parade returns to Rama I Road, transforming the city’s commercial s

It’s not Broadway, but for a night, it might feel like it. The Showhopper teams up with Lido Connect to stage – where showtunes don’t just echo, they unfold. Expect the classics: Wicked, Hadestown, Les Misérables, Phantom, Chicago – that familiar crescendo of heartbreak, hope and high notes. But look closer and there’s more. Tucked between the obvious are those underloved ‘Side B’ numbers, songs that rarely see light yet hit like secrets. Four performers take the stage, not just to belt, but to speak. Stories slip between the verses – of auditions survived, wigs lost mid-spin, of making theatre in a country where the spotlight still flickers. This isn’t about perfection. It’s about persistence. The kind that turns chorus lines into lifelines. July 12. B1,800-2,500 via here. Lido Connect, 2pm and 7.30pm

Grief doesn’t arrive with answers. It lingers, shapeless and slow, stretching hours into something unfamiliar. In this quiet, deliberate space, sorrow isn’t a wound to conceal but a landscape to walk through – cautiously, without urgency. Here, pain isn’t romanticised. It’s examined. The artist maps the terrain between collapse and repair, using canvas, steel, wood – materials that refuse to flinch. Human forms are bent, fragmented, almost blurred out. Objects warp. Landscapes ache. Oil paintings sit beside finely carved panels and cold metal surfaces, as if to remind us that emotion, too, can take form. It’s not about healing in the usual sense. More like learning to live beside the weight. To let loss reshape how we see, without demanding we move on. Some beauty asks nothing. It simply stays. Until August 31. Free. MMAD at MunMun Srinakarin Alexgust Gallery, 10.30am-9.30pm

Based in Tokyo but wired into scenes far beyond it, she’s spent the better part of two decades shaping sets that slide between grace and grit. One moment soft as silk, the next spiked with something primal. From her residency at Hong Kong Community Radio to the launch of Eustress – her own sonic playground – she’s built a world where the DJ booth is more confession than performance. Her Boiler Room Tokyo set in 2024 wasn’t just a peak, it was a portal – linking late nights in Shibuya to basements across the globe. Still rooted in Tokyo, still restless. In Bangkok, she’s flanked by Genji and Sriracha Czaddy, local disruptors with low-end tendencies and high-proof charm. Expect elegance, then impact. July 12. B400 via here and B600 at the door. BEAM, 9pm onwards 

Suburb Sound returns with a new Noise Axe edition that feels less like a night out, more like a collective exhale. 12 DJs. Two rooms. One warehouse that’s seen enough sweat to qualify as sacred. Blaqlyte Rover hosts, but the gravitational pull is Nativesun – flown in from Washington DC, orbiting under the Black Rave Culture banner. His sets don’t ask questions. They answer them, in basslines and breakbeats, Jersey club chopped against house so fast it feels like your heart skipped on purpose. July 12. B300-400 via here and B500 at the door. Blaqlyte Rover, 9pm onwards

Nicolás Etorena plays like someone raised on static and soul. A vinyl devotee from Uruguay’s new school of DJs, his sets are less playlists than time travel – sliding between house, techno and their many mutations with a precision that feels lived-in, not forced. You won’t find gimmicks or grandstanding here, just deep cuts and deeper intention. He’s a regular at Uruguay’s key dance outposts – Phonotheque, No Way Back, Saturno – where late nights often stretch into something more tender. Crowds in Brazil, Chile and Argentina have already caught on. Now, it's Bangkok's turn. Sharing the booth are local selectors Jakrin and Jirus, both known for threading the line between euphoria and restraint. July 12. B300-500 via here and B700 at the door. Bar Temp., 9pm onwards

Some dinners aren’t meals so much as murmurs – memories half-remembered, translated into texture and temperature. Chai Jia Chai plays host to Chef Naka Xiong and Head Sommelier Lesley Liu of Odette, that precise, three-starred cathedral of French technique nestled in Singapore’s National Gallery. But here, in the hush of Bangkok, the pair conjure something else entirely. Think Manchu-Han banquet by way of Burgundy, with ingredients that feel smuggled from another century. The menu reads like a dream folded into lacquered pages: brittle, delicate, slightly untranslatable. Over two nights, cuisine becomes conversation. July 12-13. Starts at B16,800. Reserve via 093-117-1909. Chai Jia Chai, 6.30pm onwards

The return of the flea market at the Warehouse Talad Noi, where everything feels slightly sunburnt and strangely alive. And it's messier, hungrier. Koji’s grilling things that smell like childhood if you grew up near soy sauce and smoke. WAGRill’s handing out steak like it’s a dare. Friesday does chips with the swagger of a food truck that knows it’s the main character. But it’s not just about eating. Aeaea Studios brings objects that might haunt your flat in the best way. THE WORN reads like a wardrobe raid from someone cooler than you. Madas Grocery Store is – well, Madas. Strange and perfectly so. Nothing quite matches, yet somehow it all fits. The kind of market you leave with stories, not receipts. July 11-12. Free. The Warehouse Talad Noi, 4pm onwards 

For one weekend, the backstreets breathe again. There are ghost walkshops that feel like memory dressed up in shadow, art talks that blur into therapy, and work walkshops that ask what it means to create beside water that remembers more than we do. This isn’t just urban renewal. It’s a slow reclaiming – of space, of self, of stories that never made it onto plaques. The canal isn’t a backdrop. It’s the collaborator. And maybe, just maybe, it’s listening. July 11-13. Free. Register via here. Ong Ang Canal, 4pm-8pm

One night only, and it might just echo for longer. As part of the SPLASH Soft Power Forum 2025, the hotel showcase turns its spotlight on Nisatiwa – a duo unbothered by genre, reverent yet restless. Thai folk is their starting point, not their boundary. The Saw-Duang weeps alongside synths. The Khaen breathes through distortion. The Phin doesn’t strum – it pulses. It’s not fusion. It’s a reckoning. A conversation between eras, stitched together with feedback and memory. It’s something messier, more urgent. Folklore left to glitch. Sound that remembers where it came from, even as it runs somewhere else. A performance that doesn’t just reinterpret heritage – it dares to rewrite it. July 10. Free. Reserve via here. Bar.Yard, Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok, 10pm-11pm

In this series of paintings, the artist doesn’t just sketch fur or bone. They map something else entirely: the unspoken bond between species, the ache of being unseen, the warmth that follows being held. Inspired by animals left behind, these works don’t shout. They murmur. They ask gentle, devastating things – ‘Have I ever been loved?’ – and still, they refuse to accuse. What emerges is not pity, but reverence. A soft insistence that even in ruin, affection remains. 20 percent of the proceeds support The Hope Thailand Foundation. Until July 31. Free. Alexgust Gallery, MMAD at MunMun Srinakarin, 10.30am-9.30pm  

House Samyan turns 21 – old enough to know better, young enough to still keep secrets. To mark the occasion, the Surprise Screening returns, cloaked in clues and adrenaline. No title, no spoilers, just the promise of something fast, tense and possibly a little unhinged. The kind of film where you grip the seat and forget to blink. But the real twist comes after the credits roll – a first look at the cinema’s upcoming roster of classics set to unspool through the rest of 2025. For those holding a Grey Card or past three paper tickets from any screenings this year, the first 80 seats are yours for free. A nod to memory, loyalty and the quiet thrill of not knowing what comes next – until the lights go down. July 6. B160 via here. House Samyan, 4.15pm onwards

No urgency, no schedule – just moon milk, movement and the kind of silence that says more than words. This workshop isn’t about becoming your best self or fixing what’s broken. It’s gentler than that. A space to feel your way back into your body, to trace the outlines of a dream you almost forgot. Through slow ritual and soft rhythm, it invites a kind of remembering – not of facts or names, but of the parts of you that rarely speak up. Here, manifestation isn’t loud or showy. It’s felt in small shifts, in breath, in stillness. The sacred, it turns out, is quieter than we thought. July 6. B2,200. Reserve via Instagram @pinky_pyn.official_ and @altheawaken. Slowcombo, 4pm-6.30pm

It starts, as all good things to do, with a rummage. The 18th edition of Made By Legacy returns this July 18-20, midday-11pm at its new home – sprawled across BITEC’s SAMA Garden like someone tipped over a particularly stylish suitcase. The venue’s new glasshouse, sun-drenched and lined with trees, feels less like a market and more like a living scrapbook: one page denim, the next hand-thrown ceramic, the next a stack of Patti Smith LPs that smell faintly of 1987. What began as a secondhand fair has become something else entirely. Not a lifestyle brand (god forbid), but a kind of mirror – reflecting back the objects we cling to, the eras we romanticise, the way a cracked teacup or slightly warped record sleeve can feel more real than anything flat-packed and algorithm-approved. There are over 150 vendors this year: from Japanese collectors to Thai artists, furniture restorers, indie publishers, potters, vinyl evangelists and those who still believe in the handwritten price tag.   Photograph: madebylegacy   And the music – always on vinyl, never an afterthought – drifts in with the ease of something overheard through a motel wall. Bowie, some forgotten disco, a bit of Japanese jazz. It gives the illusion, convincing and cinematic, that you’ve stumbled upon a flea market in another country, another decade. One where nobody’s trying to sell you anything, only share what they’ve found. Photograph: madebylegacy It’s curated, yes, but not in a suffocating way. There’s still roo

Somewhere between a tourist trap and a cultural relic, the tuk-tuk sits humming on Bangkok’s roadside – always a spectacle. Foreigners climb in wide-eyed, clutching their phones and expectations. Locals, on the other hand, usually steer clear. Until, that is, Tuktuk Radio turned the city’s noisiest ride into its most unexpected club on wheels. The YouTube channel, helmed by a crew that feels like pirate radio and performance art, trades in DJ sets performed live from moving tuk-tuks. Not pre-recorded playlists or tasteful ambient loops – this is full-throttle, bass-heavy kind of soundtracking. The music is loud, occasionally too loud, and sometimes it earns them an impromptu police stop. But even then, the set rarely skips a beat. The city becomes the backdrop, its chaos woven into the rhythm. What used to be a passive commute now pulses with something that feels like a celebration, or at least a very decent Friday night. Photograph: Tuktuk Radio What makes it addictive isn’t just the music. It’s what’s happening outside the frame – Bangkok in all its messy, magical chaos. Street vendors. Aunties in pyjamas. Neon signs that flicker like they’re trying to communicate. You’re basically watching a city mixtape, unfiltered and on the move. Photograph: Tuktuk Radio These are not flashy, overproduced broadcasts. They’re grainy, glitchy, often filmed on the fly. You get the sense that you’re being let in on something – not quite secret, but not yet mainstream. Like catching a ba

Killjoys, we’ve got massive news – My Chemical Romance is coming to Bangkok next summer. It’s been over two decades since My Chemical Romance first stitched eyeliner into the cultural fabric, and now, after years of rumour, rupture and reunion, the band is finally coming to Bangkok. Yes, really. The Long Live the Black Parade tour will land in Thailand in 2026 – marking not only the band’s long-awaited Southeast Asian debut, but their return to the stage following a post-pandemic resurgence that’s been nostalgic. For those who spent their adolescence tucked inside a hoodie, humming ‘Helena’ under their breath, this is more than a concert. It’s collective catharsis. Formed in 2001 by Gerard Way with brother Mikey, Ray Toro and Frank Iero, My Chemical Romance rose from post-9/11 disillusionment with a sound that flitted between theatrical and feral. Their second album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge launched them into the mainstream, but it was The Black Parade – a grand, gothic opera of grief – that etched their name into eyeliner-stained lore. After disbanding in 2013 with a cryptic farewell, the band returned in 2019 for a sold-out reunion in Los Angeles, then took that dark magic global – London, Tokyo, Mexico City. Now, Bangkok joins the map. Here’s everything you need to know if you want to get your hands on tickets. When are My Chemical Romance playing in Bangkok? The band will be at IMPACT Challenger Hall on Wednesday, April 22 2026. View this post on In

When Thailand decriminalised cannabis in 2022, it wasn’t just legislation that shifted – it was the entire mood. Overnight, the country known for some of the world’s most punitive drug laws became Asia’s green frontier. Khao San Road turned into a sort of tropical Amsterdam, only stickier. Shopfronts hawked pre-rolls beside pad Thai stalls. Dispensaries popped up like convenience stores, each promising ‘wellness’ with a wink. But the regular high didn’t last. This year, just three years after the grand opening, the shutters are being pulled back down – slowly, bureaucratically, but unmistakably. The Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine now insists dispensaries must transition into medical clinics. A doctor on-site, a clinic licence, prescription slips. Paperwork over pleasure. The message is clear: fun time’s over. The irony, of course, is that many of these shops had licences. Around 18,000, in fact. But of those, only a fraction qualify as actual medical facilities. Come November, roughly 12,000 will be up for renewal – and unless they conform to the new rules, they’ll go the way of the hookah bars before them. Another boom gone bust. The government says it’s a necessary correction. There are concerns, after all. Kids getting high. Tourists lighting up on beaches like it’s a full moon party every night. A whiff of moral panic, served with a side of public health anxiety. The kind of thing that gets talked about at dinner tables and school meetings. But th

Coffee in Bangkok has come a long way from the days of powdered sachets and lukewarm cafe lattes. These days, it comes with milk alternatives, custom extraction times and, occasionally, music. The city's obsession with coffee has taken on a life of its own – there’s the Sawasdee Cup Coffee Party (or ‘coffee rave’, if you're being cheeky), where beats meet beans, and espresso is served with a side of bass.  The city’s obsession has crept into every available nook – down alleyways, inside shopping centres, tucked behind plant shops and vintage racks. You’ll find pour-overs served with tasting notes more detailed than a wine list, and baristas who talk about terroir with the conviction of sommeliers. There’s a sense that coffee has moved past the morning ritual into something else entirely. And if you thought the caffeine curve had peaked, think again. Photograph: sawasdeecup.coffeeparty Photograph: sawasdeecup.coffeeparty Thailand Coffee Fest, now in its tenth year, returns this July 10-13 from 10am-8pm at Impact Exhibition Centre, Halls 5-8. But it’s also something more committed – an evolving record of the Thai coffee industry’s growing consciousness. Organised by the Specialty Coffee Association of Thailand (SCATH), this year’s instalment promises both foam art and future thinking, drawing together everyone from the farmers in Chiang Mai to the baristas fuelling Thonglor’s weekdays.  The theme, ‘Drink Better Coffee’, sounds deceptively simple. The cup in your hand could

Now entering its 27th year, the Bangkok International Festival of Dance and Music has outlasted countless club nights, fleeting gallery openings, and the tenures of 11 prime ministers.. It returns once again this year, quietly assured in its role as the capital’s most sweeping celebration of live performance. Held from September 6-October 15, the festival draws together an eclectic yet considered roster of global acts – 14 productions over six weeks, in styles that stretch from Cuban contemporary to Russian opera – it’s the cultural marathon. Photograph: bangkokfestivals Photograph: bangkokfestivals And while the festival itself never loudly insists on its prestige, the line-up doesn’t have to. Among this year’s headliners is the China National Acrobatic Troupe, a gravity-defying collective that has amassed more than 70 gold medals since its founding in the mid-20th century. Nicknamed China’s ‘dream team,’ they’ll be somersaulting into the Thailand Cultural Centre mid-September for the kind of act that will probably cause a few jaws to dislocate. Here’s what’s on: Wednesday September 6: Mahabharata: '18 days, Dusk of an Era' by Prabhat Arts International Saturday September 13-Sunday September 14: China National Acrobatic Troupe Tuesday September 16: Cuba Vibra by Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba Friday September 20: A Dream of Red Mansions by National Ballet of China Tuesday September 23: Placido Domingo Thursday September 25: NOCTURNA by Rafaela Carrasco Flamenco Ballet Friday S

If you’ve ever felt like love was something best remembered through a dusty lens, or if heartbreak should come with its own backing track of vintage synths and whispered samples, then chances are you’ve already been in a quiet entanglement with TV Girl. Formed by Brad Petering, Jason Wyman and Wyatt Harmon, the band operates less like a traditional trio and more like a ghost story set to music – lingering, looping, unshakeable. Their early release Lonely Women arrived as a kind of lo-fi time capsule: hip-hop rhythms colliding with ‘60s girl-group melancholy, dipped in irony and reverb. It spread online like lipstick on a cigarette filter – smudged, romantic, oddly familiar. Since then, TV Girl hasn’t exactly grown up, but rather grown stranger. Their most recent offering, ‘Grapes Upon the Vine’, trades old vinyl crackle for gospel overtones, as Petering muses on death, devotion and the awkward business of being alive. The album is both a sermon and a shrug, and it’s earned them not just cult status, but 2.2 million Instagram disciples. And now, they’re coming. If you're the kind to romanticise minor inconveniences or cry to lyrics that barely raise their voice, consider this your reminder. When are TV Girl playing Samyan Mitrtown Hall? TV Girl will take the stage for a one-night-only performance on Monday December 1. What are the timings? Doors at Samyan Mitrtown Hall will open at 8pm, with the performance set to begin around 8.30pm and wrap up by 10.30pm. Setlist According t

Probably not a stadium, not the kind where sweaty jerseys, screeching trainers and national anthems usually fill the air. But that’s exactly where Read Fest lands this year – from July 3-7, 10am-8pm at Nimibutr Stadium, National Stadium right next to the National Stadium BTS. It’s a book fair, yes, but not as you’ve known it. No hushed halls or fluorescent strip lights. Instead: bleachers, wide open floors and the sound of live music bouncing off rafters once reserved for volleyballs and victory chants. Entry is free, but it’s your brain that’s really getting a ticket to run wild. It’s hosted by TK Park with the Department of Physical Education – a pairing that, on paper, reads more like an administrative accident than a collaboration, but it works. Here, minds are stretched as much as muscles. No stiff rows of long tables or hushed aisles. Instead, an open, welcoming sprawl that swaps silence for sound, and stillness for movement.  Forget the air-conditioned monotony of a typical convention centre. This is bookishness with a pulse. Under the theme ‘exercise ideas’ (or ‘brain workout,’ depending who you ask), Read Fest suggests that intellectual curiosity might, in fact, be a full-body sport. And like any workout, there are stations: some gentle, some chaotic, all surprisingly fun. Now, let’s see what to expect at the festival. Book market – curated books from leading publishersThe usual suspects are here, but they’re laid out with enough breathing space to actually browse w

Welcome to Bangkok’s dark side – it’s louder, livelier, and far less subtle than you think. The traffic screams, the pavements mutter, and the skies above the Chao Phraya have long learned to stay out of the drama. But even this city, in all its maximalist glory, has found a way to get darker. This is the Bangkok Horror Film Festival – a three-day plunge into the beautifully grotesque, staged at the suitably eerie Maen Sri Waterworks building. Supported by the Department of Cultural Promotion, the Ministry of Culture and the Thailand Creative Culture Agency (THACCA), the festival runs from July 4-6. Entry’s free. The fear, less so. No one’s here for faint-hearted metaphors or ironic nods to the genre. This is horror stripped of postmodern winks – a celebration of things that go bump, rattle and occasionally howl in the night. Beyond the moonlit screenings that repeatedly test your bladder, anticipate a haunted house exhibition that crawls out of the screen and into your peripheral vision, plus hair-raising stories from crews who’ve seen more on set than made it to the final cut. There’s even a short film competition, and the chance to meet the ones behind the camera – not to break the fourth wall, but to peer behind it. To steady your nerves (or worsen them), there’ll be food stalls, live bands and activities that flirt with the line between funfair and fever dream. Outdoor horror screenings:   Ouija   Terror awaits five friends who unwittingly awaken a dark power by using

Bangkok doesn’t do quiet, it hums, honks, pulses. Even its silences come laced with static. Which is why the BOTLC Book Fair feels almost suspiciously serene. From July 16-20 at 10am-6.30pm, the Bank of Thailand Learning Centre – all clean lines and soft light – becomes a kind of sanctuary for the overstimulated. Tucked beside the Chao Phraya, it offers not just books but the rarest thing of all: a pause. This isn’t your average fairground frenzy. No jostling, no soundtrack engineered to keep you moving. Instead, it’s slow: a page turned, a thought held, a breeze that actually matters. You can wander through tables of titles without pressure, eavesdrop on a panel, then drift outside to sit with something dog-eared and deeply yours. There’ll be workshops, music, food if you need it – but the real draw is the rhythm, unhurried, unbothered. Because yes, you’ll find books – but you’ll also find space – space to browse, to breathe,  to sit with a novel by the water and forget your phone exists. Here’s how it unfolds Book fair – Not just a shopping spree. It’s a curated sprawl of publishers, obscure titles, and enough paperbacks to make your tote bag ache in the best way. Book talk – Authors step into the spotlight, joined by influencers who know their Baldwin from their Barthes. Book walk – A wander through the Bank of Thailand Museum’s collection of currency, stitched with stories more telling than any economics textbook. Book sharing – Bring a book, take a book, leave a piece o

Printmaking used to be the sort of thing your art teacher loved, or that one cousin who still uses an iPod and can’t shut up about ‘zines’. But this year’s Thailand Printmaking Festival isn’t just for the print-obsessed. It’s for anyone who’s ever paused to admire a sticker on a lamp post or traced the grain of a paperback cover. Print is, quite literally, ‘everywhere’ – and that’s precisely the point. Running July 4-15, from 4pm-10pm daily at Central Chidlom’s Event Hall, the festival returns under the quietly radical theme: ‘Printing is everywhere.’ The premise is simple – print doesn’t belong on a pedestal. It lives in our wardrobes, bookshelves, shopping bags, tote bags, Instagram feeds and street corners. It’s daily, it’s democratic and it’s deliciously DIY. Organised by GroundControl and PPP Studio, this year’s edition pulls Bangkok into the fold after its last showing in Chiang Mai’s Dream Graff Gallery (2022). With a broader scope and louder presence, the 2025 festival aims not just to show but to ‘share’ – a communal invitation to press, smudge and roll ink across our daily lives.  What’s new to look forward to this year? In addition to a wide range of artworks – from statement pieces to pocket-sized prints – the festival presents a special exhibition uniting 10 artists with 10 distinctive print studios. Each duo brings a unique method to the mix. Weekend workshops will also be held throughout, inviting visitors to create their own prints with ease. More than just a

Many will recognise ‘Let Her Go’ – a track that leans on simple yet striking images like light, sun and home to capture the emptiness that lingers when something essential disappears after love fades. It started, as these things often do, by accident. I was at a game cafe in 2012 – one of those dim, blinking places where time collapses and teenagers subsist entirely on instant noodles and borrowed Wi-Fi – when ‘Let Her Go’ floated through my headphones, uninvited. I wasn’t looking for poetry. I was probably mid-click, halfway through some medieval siege. But then came the line: ‘Only know you love her when you let her go.’ It landed with the quiet cruelty of something far too true for a Tuesday afternoon. It’s 2025, and Michael David Rosenberg – though most will know him as Passenger – a British folk singer with the kind of weathered sincerity that tends to sneak up on you – is finally playing a show in Thailand. A little late, perhaps, considering his biggest song has been echoing through bedrooms, cafes and breakup playlists for well over a decade. Still, there’s something fitting about it. His music has always been less about arrival and more about the long road getting there. By the time ‘Let Her Go’ became a global phenomenon, topping charts across continents and amassing billions of views, the moment had already passed. The track had quietly entered the bloodstream of a generation not especially prone to feeling things out loud. If ‘Let Her Go’  ever held a place in you