The best things to do in Bangkok this November

When Bangkok’s weekends start to sound like a never-ending drum solo, Fewer Better Things offers a softer tempo. Think vinyl crackles, bookshop chatter and cocktails that actually taste like something. For one night, the space morphs into a tactile sanctuary where records, words and conversation share the same easy rhythm. Recoroom, Bangkok’s temple of jazz and blues vinyl, sets the tone with a live DJ set gliding between smooth standards and forgotten gems. Crates brim with records waiting for someone curious enough to flip through. Vacilando Bookshop and Spacebar Zines bring their own quiet intensity – tables stacked with photobooks, indie prints and vintage magazines that smell faintly of history. Meanwhile, Choeng Doi Distillery keeps the glasses poetic with cocktails crafted from mountain water and northern herbs.

November 1. Free. Fewer Better Things, 8pm-11pm

Ghost 2568 feels like a haunting farewell – the last in a trilogy of Bangkok’s most quietly radical art events. This year’s edition, Wish We Were Here, curated by Amal Khalaf, follows previous chapters by Korakrit Arunanondchai and Christina Li. It unfolds along the Chao Phraya River, where screens, performances and whispers of movement question what survival looks like when space for freedom keeps shrinking. The works speak of homes that vanish, of longing that refuses to. It’s an elegy for what’s been lost and a love letter to what remains: connection, imagination, and defiance. More than a festival, Ghost feels like a shared hallucination – one that asks how we might still belong, even as the city keeps slipping from our grasp.

October 15-November 15. Free. Bangkok CityCity Gallery, 11am-7pm 

The magic’s back, and this time it comes with a live orchestra. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban returns to the big screen, only this isn’t your usual rewatch. ALCOPOP and Five Four Live are teaming up with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra to bring the film’s third chapter to life – quite literally. As the story unfolds on a 40-foot screen, every sweep of John Williams’ score will be performed live, conducted by Timothy Henty. Expect the trembling strings when the Dementors arrive, the brass that lifts the broomsticks and the haunting melodies that made growing up at Hogwarts feel monumental. It’s nostalgia, sharpened and reimagined, where cinema meets symphony and you remember exactly why the magic never really left.

November 8-9. B1,200-4,000 via here. Prince Mahidol Hall, Mahidol University.

What began as a modest night has stretched its limbs across two evenings, morphing into something between a fairground and a fever dream. Over 100 vendors will set up camp – cannabis growers beside kratom brewers, wellness gurus beside people who just really like loud guitars. It’s less a market, more a conversation about what ‘sustainable’ looks like when fun is part of the brief. ChangChui’s grounds split neatly into three worlds: healing, battle and stoner. One offers herbal workshops and massages, another swaps gloves for guitars, and the last hums with smoke and basslines. Expect headliners like Srirajah Rockers, Desktop Error, Bomb at Track and Rejizz, but the real intrigue sits with Nudkinpuk’s next act – a carnival with dirt under its nails.

November 8-9. B150 via here. ChangChui Creative Park, 4pm-midnight

The Taiwan Documentary Film Festival has quietly carved its own corner of the calendar, offering films that linger long after the credits roll. Its lens turns on Taiwanese lives with a patience that feels intimate rather than performative, capturing family routines, political tensions and cities suspended between memory and reinvention. Returning this November, the festival spreads across Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen and Songkhla, linking audiences who might never meet but share a curiosity for stories lived elsewhere. Each screening folds the familiar into the unfamiliar, making landscapes feel like streets you’ve walked and lives feel like echoes of your own. It’s subtle, generous storytelling that proves cinema can shrink distances without ever feeling forced or ornamental.

November 12-16. House Samyan and Century Sukhumvit

TYLA’s music bends genres with the ease of someone rewriting the rules as she goes. Pop and R&B shimmer under her touch, carrying hints of amapiano, the rhythm that shaped her childhood in South Africa. Her 2023 single, ‘Water’, didn’t just make waves – it surged across charts, making her the highest-ranking African female soloist on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning double-platinum status. Recognition followed quickly, with her first Grammy for Best African Music Performance affirming a talent that feels both rooted and restless. Listening to her tracks is like catching sunlight on moving water: joyous, fluid and impossible to ignore. 

November 14. Tickets are sold out. Hall 3, Impact Challenger, 7.30 pm

Transport is back, and this time it feels bigger, brighter and ready to stretch across the whole day. The bi-yearly mini-festival at ChangChui promises 14 hours under one glittering disco ball, a playground where sound and movement collide with effortless joy. The day begins with ambient textures that tease the ears before slipping into full-throttle beats that make it impossible to stay still. DJs like Running Hot, James Falco and Frinda Di Lanco layer grooves alongside Vio PRG, Richard Fribert and Soulectric Jams, while KpodKpod and Transport themselves guide the night with sets that feel both familiar and surprising. It’s less about spectacle and more about being present – feeling the music, the crowd, the moment – the sort of festival that leaves you buzzing long after the lights go down.

November 15. B1,000-1,200 via here. ChangChui, midday-2am

David Archuleta is finally touching down in Thailand, ready to fill the night with the voice that made ‘Crush’ a global earworm. Fans can expect a mix of old favourites and fresh tracks, all staged with a high-energy dance team that turns the evening into a full-on experience rather than a typical concert. His new EP, Earthly Delights, marks his first major release in over five years, revealing a side of Archuleta that’s playful, tender and occasionally daring. Tracks like ‘Crème Brûlée’ and ‘Can I Call You’ shimmer with charm, while ‘Dulce Amor’ flirts between English and Spanish in a way that feels effortlessly romantic. The Deluxe Edition adds ‘Fade To Black’ and ‘Inside Out’, rounding out a set that proves he’s as much about storytelling as melody, and every note lands like a personal confession.

November 19. B2,200-3,700 via here. Melt Livehouse, 8pm

‘Oh my pretty pretty boy, I love you’ – lines that somehow captured a generation, a bittersweet echo of teenage hearts and unpolished innocence. M2M’s music wasn’t just pop, it was a soft, unassuming soundtrack to the everyday dramas of growing up, the kind you hummed on repeat and carried in memory long after the CD skipped. After 22 years apart, the duo reunited last year, surprising fans with a tour celebrating their 25th anniversary. Their comeback show at the Thunder Dome in Muang Thong Thani in May felt like stepping into a time capsule, yet somehow fresher than ever. This November, they return, promising another round of that unmistakable charm – songs that tug at nostalgia while reminding us why simplicity and sincerity never go out of style.

November 22. B2,000-5,000 via here. One Bangkok Forum, 8pm

The Parisian group weave electropop, funk and nu-disco into something lush and cinematic. Members Charles de Boisseguin (keyboard), Hagni Gwan (keyboard), Achille Trocellier (guitar), David Gaugué (bass), Tom Daveau (drums) and vocalist Flore Benguigui build songs that glide – silk basslines under disco shimmer. The name means ‘The Empress’, a nod to transformation and quiet authority. Flore’s presence is both magnetic and political: she writes about sexism in the industry, about being second-guessed as an artist because she is a woman, about resisting any attempt to reshape her identity. On stage, those politics become euphoria.

November 27. B2,200 via here. The Street Hall, 7pm

After a fully packed debut earlier this year, Bangkok is set for a three-day deep dive into acoustic roots music, celebrating bluegrass, Irish trad and old-time tunes. Rare live in Thailand, these sounds feel like secret treasures when they appear, and the festival promises to uncover them in full. Friday, November 28, opens with The Welcome Jam, an intimate session where local players meet visiting musicians, each style given its moment to shine, all accompanied by canapes and free-flow drinks. Saturday, November 29, The Gathering fills the day with Thai and international acts, including standout headliners from last year, alongside food and drink for purchase. Sunday, November 30, Songs and Stories guides listeners from the green hills of Ireland to early America, ending with a communal finale that lingers long after the last chord.

November 28-30. B900-2,999 via here. Public House Bangkok.

Cat Radio’s annual festival has grown into a rite of passage for anyone curious about Thailand’s music scene. It celebrates the artists who might not dominate the charts but shape the sound of a generation, a playground for discovery and genuine joy. Across the weekend, stages showcase a range of Thai talent, from up-and-coming bands to familiar favourites, each set carrying its own quirky energy. Between performances, a marketplace hums with activity, where vinyl, merch and rare finds invite browsing and conversation. It’s less about spectacle and more about connection – dancing close enough to strangers to feel the music in your chest, laughing over shared discoveries and leaving with memories that stick. The festival honours the ‘little people’ of music, proving that magic lives in corners often overlooked.

November 29-30. B499 via here. Siam Amazing Park, midday-11pm

Tokyo’s genre-bending quintet Kroi are finally landing in Thailand, and it’s about time. Since forming in 2018, they’ve gone from late-night jam sessions to festival staples, threading funk, soul and experimental rock into something that sounds both futuristic and faintly nostalgic. Their name has hovered across every major Japanese stage – Fuji Rock, Summer Sonic, Rising Sun, Rock in Japan – with a swagger that’s hard to fake. By 2023 they’d climbed into Japan’s top 10 most-booked festival acts, filling arenas like Budokan and PIA Arena MM with audiences who knew every offbeat chord. Critics call them innovators; fans call them electric. Between MTV awards, a Forbes 30 Under 30 nod and their unshakeable cool, Kroi aren’t just visiting Thailand – they’re bringing a movement with them.

November 30. B900 via here and B1,200 at the door. Blueprint Livehouse, 6.30pm