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As the sun slips below the skyline, thousands of lights flicker to life across the heart of Bangkok once more, and the Samyan Mitrtown Lantern Art Festival returns for its fifth birthday. Five years on, this annual glow-up has grown from a pretty light display to one of the mall's best-loved fixtures, and it's easy to see why.
This is no ordinary decoration. The festival reimagines the plaza out front as a proper open-air gallery, where art escapes the white-walled museum and lands smack in the middle of everyday city life. The whole idea is togetherness – accessible, free and open to anyone wandering past.
That spirit sits at the core of Samyan Mitrtown's vision: art belongs to everyone, a place to learn, connect and find a spark rather than something locked behind a gallery door.
This year's theme, 'The Luminous Bloom', imagines creativity as a flower coming alive. Through a clever marriage of light, colour and design, the plaza becomes an urban garden aglow with warmth and the quiet buzz of growth.
Wander the grounds and you'll discover a spread of lantern artworks and installations, each telling its own story through dazzling colour and inventive lighting. An ordinary night turns genuinely special, the sort worth lingering over.
So come admire the collection, snap a few memorable photos and soak up an atmosphere humming with colour, light and inspiration.
At the Plaza in front of Samyan Mitrtown, July 17-31. Free of charge.