The best things to do in Bangkok this June

Walking in a world where humanity teeters on the brink, and the walls meant to protect are also what keep you trapped. Attack on Titan, Hajime Isayama’s sprawling dystopia, arrives in Bangkok not as a mere manga retrospective but as an experience – one that swells with sound, light and looming structure. The exhibition doesn’t just revisit the story’s famous walls, it builds them around you, as if to remind you where the real monsters are. Among the chaos: a 3D cinema that hurls you into a ten-minute warzone, artefacts from the series frozen in glass, and a four-metre Titan head that stares you down like it knows too much. Until Jun 18. B300-420 via here. Central World, 11am-9pm

To mark the 20th anniversary of Naruto, 54 Entertainment, in partnership with SL Experiences, presents Naruto The Gallery – an immersive exhibition that invites fans to explore the intertwined fates of Naruto and Sasuke. With seven meticulously curated zones, visitors journey through key moments, from their childhood in Konoha to their fated reunion during the Fourth Great Ninja War. The exhibition is not just a walk down memory lane, though. It showcases original storyboards, character designs and unforgettable anime scenes that reveal the heart of the series. Highlights include a stunning diorama of Hidden Leaf Village, a tribute to iconic quotes and an exclusive collaboration with five emerging Japanese artists. It’s a celebration of the anime’s legacy, full of surprises for fans both old and new. May 31-Jul 31. B250-450 via here. Free for kids below four years old. River City Bangkok, 10am-8pm

Doraemon fans, this one’s for you. The 100% Doraemon and Friends Tour arrives in Thailand for the first time, following stops in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Shanghai. The event celebrates Fujiko F. Fujio’s 90th anniversary with life-sized manga figures. Inside, expect two key zones. The first is a manga-inspired space with life-sized figures of Doraemon and his crew – each standing at 123.9 cm, just like in the comics. The second includes a themed cafe and pop-up store with items exclusive to the tour. A giant inflatable Doraemon – the world’s largest – will also debut by the Chao Phraya River, adding a surreal new landmark to Bangkok’s riverside. May 1-June 22. B199-1,790 via here. Attraction Hall, Icon Siam, 10.30am-9pm

Some musicians are sculptors – chiselling away in the hush of the studio, every note precisely placed. Others thrive in the chaos of a live set, where rhythm slips its leash and sound becomes something molten. Yussef Dayes is unmistakably the latter. A drummer from South London with a producer’s ear and a mystic’s sense of timing, he builds sprawling, unpredictable worlds out of jazz, broken beat and whatever else the moment demands. His performances don’t settle – they swerve, pulse, collapse into something new, only to erupt again. Now, after years of setting London alight with his genre-blurring sets, Dayes brings The Yussef Dayes Experience to Thailand for the first time as a solo headliner. Jun 6. Tickets are sold out. Lido Connect 2, 7pm onwards

The first group exhibition in Bangkok to centre queer artists from Myanmar – a collective debut that feels less like a splashy arrival and more like a long-overdue exhale. Here, the works don’t shout, they ache. Across video, sculpture, performance and still image, the artists trace a line between leaving and belonging, mapping the emotional weight of homesickness, adaptation and identity in cities that offer both promise and dissonance. Some left for love, others for labour or liberty, but all carry the imprint of elsewhere. Most have sidestepped the usual white-cube trajectory – cutting their teeth in fashion editorials, commercial sets or underground scenes – and yet, the result is anything but amateur. This is not an exhibition that begs for legitimacy. It asserts its presence with quiet defiance, like a diary left open in a room you weren’t supposed to enter. Jun 7-Aug 9. Free. SAC Gallery

Some performances whisper. A Cage of Fragile Heart seethes. Directed by Madmee Pimdao Panichsamai – whose work at Bangkok Art Biennale 2024 proved she’s not interested in tidy answers – it’s a meditation on the ways we imprison ourselves, not with steel, but with roles, rituals and the gaze of others. There is only one performer, but the stage feels crowded: with duty, fear, the gnawing need to be free. David Bigander moves like a man haunted by versions of himself. Choreography by Pawida Wachirappanyaporn gives the body its own language, while poetry by Win Nimmannorrawut, better known as ‘Romantic Savage’, threads through like breath held too long. This isn’t a narrative. It’s a reckoning – where silence, movement and memory ask the only question that matters: what remains when the mask slips? Jun 7-15. B350-500 via here. River City Bangkok, 6.30pm onwards

For one weekend, the streets of Sansiri Krungthep Kreetha Community will shapeshift into a sprawling, open-air gameboard, where families become unlikely adventurers in an immersive puzzle-solving quest. Forget screen time and scheduled playdates; here, teamwork is currency and curiosity the only compass. Each corner conceals a clue, each task nudges participants further into a shared rhythm of discovery. It’s part treasure hunt, part social experiment, designed not just to entertain but to reveal something quieter: the texture of everyday connection. In a landscape of polished pavements and international-standard amenities, this event winks at the idea of what community living could feel like – less polished brochure, more spirited chaos. A rare thing: fun with actual substance. Jun 7. B550 for a family of four. Register via here and here. Sansiri Krungthep Kreetha Community, 4pm-10pm

Bangkok, slippery and many-faced, demands something looser – something that lets the contradictions breathe. Enter a rotating project at Neighbourmart, where artists, designers and chronic overthinkers of urban life gather not to sell, but to speak, provoke and occasionally play. The programme morphs as it moves: one day a walking tour, the next a talk, the next an exhibit or impromptu performance. This round, the floor clears for Bangkok Pains, a board game by Invisible Ink that turns daily exasperations – traffic, tangled wires, existential dread in a 7-Eleven queue – into strangely cathartic play. It’s not about winning. It’s about seeing the chaos, naming it, and maybe laughing through clenched teeth with someone who gets it. Jun 7. Free. Register here. Neighbourmart, TCDC, 2pm-5pm 

Sixteen of Thailand’s fiercest street dancers are set to collide in a 1-on-1 battle of grit, rhythm and sheer nerve, watched by a crowd of over 2,000. The prize? A chance to carry the country’s name to the World Finals in Los Angeles – a city that’s seen its fair share of footwork and flair, but maybe not quite like this. There will be sweat. There might be tears. And between the rounds, performances from Tobii, hip-hop heavyweights Thaitanium and the ever-unbothered Younggu will raise the temperature further. One stage, one shot, and no second takes. Jun 7. Free. Hua Lamphong Train Station, 6pm onwards

In his latest offering, Udom Taephanich – long known for saying too much with a single raised eyebrow – turns his attention to the strange erosion of play. Not the type sold in boxes, but the kind we used to conjure instinctively, when sofa cushions became castles and questions came without hesitation. Back then, imagination was a birthright. We made monsters out of scribbles, entire worlds from cardboard. Then came the invisible border called adulthood, where mistakes became shameful and joy needed justification. A reminder that the real decay isn’t physical – it’s forgetting how to be ridiculous without apology. And maybe, just maybe, it’s reversible. Jun 7-Aug 3. B250-850 via here. The Pinnacle Hall, ICONSIAM, 11am-9pm

Kula Shaker have always leaned into the latter – less a band, more a swirling collision of sitars, sweat and full-body possession. Rising from the British psych-rock underbrush in the ’90s with incense in one hand and a tambourine in the other, they never quite fit the mould, which is precisely why they endured. Now, they return not with reinvention but with renewed purpose. Their live set isn’t a trip down memory lane – it’s a detour into something weirder, louder and oddly spiritual. Think cosmic riffs, Sanskrit chants, vocals that feel carved from another era. One moment you’re swaying, the next you’re somewhere between Camden and the Ganges, wondering how you got there. The answer? Kula Shaker, obviously. Jun 12. Tickets are sold out. Lido Connect, 8pm onwards

For three nights only, the man often dubbed the King of White Truffles returns to Bangkok, stepping back into the kitchen at Cannubi by Umberto Bombana, the restaurant that bears his name but rarely his presence. This limited engagement isn’t so much a dinner as it is a performance – deliberate, fleeting and designed to linger long after the final course. The menu? Still under wraps, naturally. But expect something that reads less like a list of ingredients and more like a quiet provocation. Precision will meet indulgence, restraint will flirt with decadence, and somewhere between the courses, you’ll remember why some chefs are spoken of with the kind of reverence usually reserved for painters, poets and the occasional saint. Jun 12-14. Starts at B11,950. Reserve via 02-200-9000 or visit their website. Dusit Thani Bangkok, Midday-11pm

Not all revolutions shout. Some unfold quietly – on a screen, in a room high above the city, where stories flicker against the walls and identities take centre stage. This two-day film event, in partnership with the Australian Embassy in Thailand, isn’t trying to be loud. It’s trying to be honest. Held on the 30th floor of the Maa-Lai Library, the setting feels more like a friend’s living room than a formal cinema. The curated selection leans into nuance, celebrating LGBTQIA+ lives not as symbols, but as people – messy, funny, flawed, alive. Jun 13-14. Free. Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok, 3pm onwards

Bangkok’s midsummer love letter to rhythm and chaos, falls firmly in the latter. A collision of sound curated by One Bangkok, the French Embassy and Alliance Française, the festival isn’t content with background music. It wants volume. It wants sweat. With five stages and over 28 acts drawn from both sides of the globe, expect molam weaving into jazz, pop flirting with techno and DJs spinning until your sense of time slips. You’ll find icons like Phum Viphurit, Gene Kasidit and Paradise Bangkok Molam International sharing the stage with newcomers and street performers. It’s unruly, inclusive and gloriously loud – a night stitched together by basslines and big feelings. Jun 14. Free. One Bangkok and Alliance Française, (time to be announced soon.)

This June, for the first time, there’s a seat reserved just for Bears – because not every love story fits neatly into a swipe. Alongside the usual gay, sapphic, and male and female speed dating nights, a new round joins the lineup, tailored for those who like their affection a little hairier, a little softer round the edges. Saturday June 21 marks the Gay edition. Sunday June 29 shifts focus to the straight crowd. It’s awkward, exhilarating and occasionally disastrous – like all the best beginnings. No profile pics, no curated bios. Just eye contact, questionable banter and the thrilling possibility of maybe, just maybe, something real. Jun 21 and 29. B1,499 via here. SO/ Bangkok, 7pm-10pm 

Lahn Mah or How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies – has done the latter, ricocheting from Thai cinemas to global acclaim, scooping up awards along the way and now, improbably, heading for an English-language remake by Miramax. Yes, that Miramax. Yes, this really happened at Cannes. At this month’s festival, the film screens with something of a victory lap – grief, guilt and generational tension all stitched together in a story that feels achingly familiar yet oddly specific. Director Pat Boonnitipat, who somehow made heartbreak feel cinematic rather than sentimental, will be there in person for a post-screening Q&A. Expect uncomfortable laughs, quiet tears and an atmosphere that suggests Thai cinema isn’t having a moment. It’s having a movement. Jun 22. Free. B20 at the door for non-TK Park members. Reserve via filmforum17@gmail.com. TK Park, Central World, 4pm onwards

His music meanders, unspooling like smoke in a sunlit room – equal parts groove, introspection and something that feels a lot like memory. For one night only, the LA-based producer-slash-vocalist lands in Bangkok, bringing with him an exclusive set laced with unreleased work and cult favourites, performed live on keys and mic. Raised on soul, sharpened by Stones Throw Records, and baptised by the bass-heavy sanctum of Low End Theory, MNDSGN’s sound defies tidy categorisation. Rare Pleasure – his first album with live-band recordings – marked a pivot, not a departure. Think R&B washed in psychedelia, film scores spliced with jazz, all held together by collaborators who don’t just play – they converse. Bangkok gets him briefly, wholly, before he disappears again into that mellow, mesmerising orbit. Jun 23. B1,300 via here. Speakerbox, 8.30pm onwards