The best things to do in Bangkok this weekend (December 18-21)

Doja Cat is coming to Thailand for the very first time, and the timing couldn’t feel more festive. The Grammy-winning superstar has revealed her Ma Vie World Tour, bringing her genre-blurring sound and theatrical energy to stages across New Zealand, Australia and several spots in Asia. For Thai fans, it promises an evening where pop, rap and R&B collide with a performance style that has made her one of the most talked-about names in music right now. Expect bold visuals, choreographed spectacle and moments that will have the crowd moving from the first beat to the last. It’s a chance to see her world on a stage that, until now, has only been imagined, and to ring out the year with a show that feels impossibly vibrant and very much worth the wait.

December 18. B2,800-12,600 via here. Impact Exhibition Hall 5-6, Muangthong Thani, 7pm

Da Minot arrives at Bangkok Mojo carrying the kind sound that lived in. The collective comes from Shillong in India, drawing on rhythms and melodies rooted in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, then reshaping them with contemporary textures that sit somewhere between ceremony and experiment. It’s music that lingers, asking for attention without demanding it. Fresh from a well-received set at Wonderfruit, this show offers a closer encounter. Mojo’s intimate room suits their approach, allowing small details to surface and shared moments to breathe. Expect layers built patiently, voices and instruments moving together with a sense of memory at work. It’s an evening best taken slowly, with open ears and no rush to label what you’re hearing. Some performances feel like events. Others feel like gatherings. This one promises the latter.

December 18. B400 at the door. Bangkok Mojo, 10pm onwards

Sawadee, Bangkok. BUTT touches down with deliberate timing. The city, already fluent in desire, hosts a two-part gathering that leans playful, sharp and slightly unbuttoned. The first stop is Bangkok Kunsthalle, where the magazine shows itself through a run of queer short films, loose conversations and drinks that encourage staying longer than planned. Think flirting as a cultural practice rather than a theme. The evening then slips across town to HORN for a club night that stretches past common sense. Alongside it all runs a focus on Bangkok as seen by artist Oat Montien. Raised alongside sex workers, the Krung Thep native films the city’s queer underside with colour, humour and unease. One of his videos screens at Bangkok Kunsthalle, offering a view of Bangkok that feels intimate, messy and very much alive.

December 18. Free. Register via here. Bangkok Kunsthalle, 6.30pm-8pm

British travel writer Thomas Bird will spend an evening at The Readeasy reading from Harmony Express: Travels by Train Through China, his account of crossing China by rail during the 2010s. The book moves through stations, sleeper cars and half-remembered meals, catching a country mid-shift without pretending to explain it all. Bird’s writing, shaped by years contributing to BBC Travel, CNN Travel and the South China Morning Post, favours observation over proclamation. Signed copies will be available on the night for those who like their travel writing tangible. The setting suits the tone. The Readeasy runs as a relaxed monthly meet-up where writers test new work, swap nerves and read aloud without hierarchy. Short fiction, poems, fragments and memoirs all pass the mic. Experience does not matter. You can read, you can listen, or you can sit quietly and let other people’s journeys do the travelling for you.

December 18. Free. Queen Bee, 7.30pm-9.30pm

Asoke’s Mirage feels like a quiet continuation. Following Suggestions, the new works keep worrying at perception, memory and that soft space where certainty slips. Layers of colour drift across the surface, broken by half-seen structures and shapes that suggest buildings without committing to them. Everything appears provisional, as if caught mid-thought. You recognise a form, then doubt yourself a second later. What holds it together is the way the mind gets involved. Marks feel random but never careless, asking the viewer to finish the picture themselves. Paint and ink stack up in thin skins, creating scenes that hover between abstraction and something more familiar. Moving to a larger scale gives these works room to breathe. Standing in front of them feels like walking through a remembered place that refuses to stay still, intimate yet oddly unreachable.

Until January 18 2026. Free. Supples Gallery, 11am-6pm

Baan Park Nai Lert spends a few days pretending Bangkok has decided to dress up for winter. The Nai Lert Flower and Garden Art Fair takes over the grounds, turning the old residence into a carefully staged escape that feels more playful than polite. The front courtyard becomes a maze threaded with light and sound, while the gardens fill with floral displays that reward slow wandering rather than hurried selfies. Step inside the greenhouse and the mood shifts again, with winter blooms sitting beside clean energy ideas that feel surprisingly at home here. After 6pm, Garden Illumination changes the temperature entirely, washing paths and trees in soft lighting with soundscapes that encourage lingering. Food arrives via a dedicated zone, led by Park Nai Lert’s chefs and familiar restaurant names. Workshops, craft sessions and a lifestyle market round things out nicely.

December 18-21. B100-150 at the door. Ban Park Nai Lert, 10am-10pm

International Human Rights Day is marked with an open-air screening at the Netherlands Embassy Garden, a setting that feels deliberately calm for a film that is anything but comfortable. State of Silence follows Mexican journalists who keep reporting despite knowing the risks rarely end well. Since 2000, more than 160 reporters have been killed and dozens remain missing, punished simply for doing their jobs. Almost none of those responsible have faced consequences, a fact the film never lets you forget. The documentary sits within the Movies that Matter programme, a Dutch initiative using cinema to open difficult conversations around justice and accountability. Watching these stories unfold outdoors, surrounded by polite greenery, sharpens the contrast. It is not an easy evening, but it is a necessary one, asking viewers to sit with courage, fear and the cost of telling the truth.

December 18. Free. Register via here. The garden, the Embassy of the Netherlands, 7pm-9pm

Walking through this exhibition feels a bit like being handed the keys to Chatchai Puipia’s inner universe, only to realise it’s far bigger and stranger than you imagined. His work has shaped contemporary Thai art for decades, stitched together with sharp humour and an eye that never flinches. What unfolds here is a long conversation about identity and memory, delivered through imagery that lingers long after you’ve moved on. More than 140 pieces chart his shifting moods and methods, from commanding canvases to sculptures that feel almost theatrical. Tucked between them are notes, photographs and fragments of his process that reveal how he thought, worried and wondered. The result is less a retrospective and more a guided wander through a mind still questioning the world and its stories.

Until February 15 2026. Free. 8/F, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, 10am-8pm 

Wandering through the dream diary of someone who has learned to fight their shadows with tenderness. At the centre stands a small warrior in a frog hat and crown, tiptoeing through a fantasy realm filled with creatures that look suspiciously like fear, loneliness and all the pressures we pretend not to feel. Each figure in the gallery acts as a different emotional avatar. Some stride with bold confidence, others soften the room with a quiet steadiness, yet all belong to a game-like world that mirrors how we navigate real life. The whole exhibition plays a bit like earning XP for the soul, charting the tiny victories and setbacks that shape us. Hope flickers throughout, not as a grand gesture but as a steady glow that refuses to disappear.

Until December 27. Free. KICHgallery, 10am-6pm

After months behind closed doors, the gallery finally switches the lights back on with an art fair that feels more like a reunion than a relaunch. The programme gathers 10 contemporary artists working across screens, objects and everything in between, including Dittawat Ajmanwra, Maria Zakioso, Aftertest_Bangkok and WISHULADA. Each brings a distinct way of looking, giving the space a sense of conversation. Beyond the artworks, a small market takes shape with independent names such as Huntress Closet, Trash Pearl and Yellow Fever, plus food projects worth lingering for. The timing helps if you’re quietly hunting for Christmas gifts without the panic. Opening night keeps things loose with prosecco on free flow, a DJ set by Unix and a temporary snow installation tucked inside the gallery. Consider it a gentle reset, equal parts art, browsing and catching up.

December 20-21. Free. AGNI Gallery, midday-10pm

In this quiet room, Tat Nattee lets you meet a group of children the world rarely pauses to understand. The project extends his Albino Kids series, which he has shaped across two years with a patience that feels almost parental. Each child is born under a spotlight they never asked for, forced to navigate sharp light and stranger’s eyes long before they learn their own wants. Nattee refuses to paint them as fragile. He treats them as thinkers, architects of their inner landscapes. Their strength comes not from performance but from the small decisions that build a sense of self. They do not retreat. They construct a private realm that belongs only to them, a place untouched by expectation.

December 7-January 11 2026. Free. Joyman Gallery, 11am-6pm

Awakening Bangkok is getting a sensory hideaway inspired by the Thai proverb ‘good medicine tastes bitter’, the sort of saying your grandparents would mutter while handing you a remedy that worked better than it tasted. The installation channels that memory through herbs, scent and soft light, building a quiet world shaped by traditional healing. Visitors step into Bai Hor, a reimagined Thai herbal shop where classic ingredients are tucked inside modular forms that feel part sculpture, part remedy cabinet. Sound hums gently through the space, guiding you through layers of fragrance and shadow. It encourages a slower pace, the kind you forget you need until you finally exhale. Think of it as a small retreat in the middle of the festival, a place to reset before wandering back outside.

December 12-21. Free. Bangkok’s Old Town, 6pm-9pm

Cool season finally means nights you can actually enjoy, the kind where wandering Bangkok feels less like a mission and more like a gentle excuse to stay out a bit longer. For 10 days, Phra Nakhon will be glowing again as Awakening Bangkok returns, weaving light installations through the old town’s weathered alleyways. Temples, shophouses and even mosques are turning into digital canvases, each piece playing with this year’s theme, LOVEVERCITY, a loose exploration of how love appears in unexpected corners. Five areas shape the trail: the familiar Pak Khlong Talat and Sam Yot zones, joined by newcomers Saphan Phut and Wang Burapha. You can peek at the images online if you want a preview, or just wander over after 5pm and let the lights decide your route.

December 12-21. Free. Bangkok’s Old Town, 6pm-9pm

One at A Time closes the year with a party made for those who feel music rather than chase it. Gene on Earth leads the evening, a selector whose sets never shout but linger, coaxing shoulders to loosen and ears to lean a little closer than usual. Each track feels deliberate, a quiet mastery of groove and restraint that keeps the room suspended just enough to notice the small details. Elaheh and Shinfish, the trusted residents, weave through the night with unhurried precision. They drop the right record at the exact moment, and occasionally something unexpected, which somehow lands perfectly. It’s the kind of night where time stretches softly around the music, where dancing is measured, smiles are exchanged over shared beats, and the year quietly folds itself into a groove that feels entirely your own.

December 20. B500 via here and B700 at the door. Bar Temp., 9pm onwards

JonnyVicious has been shaping nights in Kuala Lumpur long enough to feel woven into the city’s after-dark memory. His story starts in 2011 at Monsoon+ Records, where he cut his teeth as assistant music director, helping build parties that leaned towards the stranger edges of house and techno. Those early experiments set the tone for a DJ career driven by curiosity rather than hype. A later chapter saw him step up as Music Director at Pisco Bar KL, a fixture for electronic music lovers and a place where taste still mattered. Jonny’s selections favour mood and patience, rewarding listeners who stay a little longer. Expect sets that unfold rather than announce themselves, guided by experience and instinct. The night comes with support from Kornnlee, keeping things cohesive without crowding the room.

December 19. B300-500 via here. Bar Temp., 9pm onwards

The Empress and the Dragon’s Lakes arrives for 1 night only, shaping an evening built around voice, ritual and performance that sits somewhere between concert and ceremony. Live music shares space with workshops led by Daniel López, performing as La Emperatriz, alongside Vietnamese performance artist Hoan Doan. Mornings are given over to practice, with vocal ensemble work and body movement sessions running from 9am to midday, before everything gathers again for a 5pm concert. La Emperatriz is López’s musical alter ego, a form grown from years of composition, piano training and touring with alternative rock band Danicattack. Born in Bogotá and trained across Colombia and Barcelona, his work turns towards gender, memory and emotional inheritance. Tarot symbolism threads quietly through the performance, offering something intimate rather than theatrical. Expect an atmosphere that asks for attention, openness and a willingness to feel slightly undone by the end.

December 20. B800 for the concert via here and B1,600 for the workshops via here. The Fig Lobby Bangkok. 9pm-midday for the workshops and 7pm for the concert.

IFEXPO arrives at year’s end for the first time, wrapped in a theme called ‘Welcome from the Warm Side’. Think winter suggested rather than borrowed, carried through colour, design and a festive mood that feels generous without shouting. The fair works as a gentle hunt for gifts that mean something, from one-off artworks to limited handmade pieces meant for people you actually like. Supporting Thai artists comes baked in rather than announced. This edition brings together work from 834 creators across 1,150 booths each day, drawing a crowd led by young women aged 16 to 30, students and early-career adults with sharp eyes for illustration and Korean-leaning cuteness. Bestsellers skew small and charming: die-cut stickers, pins, postcards, keychains and accessories. Food, desserts, cats, cheeky quotes and wide-eyed girls dominate, familiar enough to smile at, personal enough to take home.

December 20-21. B120-220 at the door. 5/F, Siam Paragon, 10am-8pm

For one night only, Foam and Game from Bar Not Found slip behind the bar at Toma Y Toma, promising an evening that feels mischievous in the right way. Known for a cocktail menu built around Pantone shades, the team treats colour as both flavour and feeling. Each drink arrives with its own mood, less about bravado and more about quiet personality. Bar Not Found has built a reputation for playful precision, where technique hides behind charm and nothing feels forced. Expect combinations that surprise without showing off, leaning on texture, temperature and memory rather than gimmicks. Toma Y Toma’s space shifts subtly for the takeover, giving the night a borrowed identity that suits it well. Come curious, stay longer than intended and let the colours do the talking. It is a brief collaboration, but the kind that lingers after the last glass is cleared.

December 20. Free. Toma Y Toma, 8pm onwards 

Netflix turns Song Wat Road strange in the best possible way with One Last Adventure in Thailand, a free tribute to Stranger Things as the series edges into its final episodes. Each evening from 5pm-10pm, the neighbourhood becomes a walkable love letter to Hawkins. Start at Chaoren Watana Warehouse, refashioned as Castle Byers, complete with the Christmas Light Wall that still raises hairs. Nearby, the I Wanna Bangkok sign flips expectations, while Nurry Chestnut Ice Cream plays double duty as The Palace Arcade and Scoops Ahoy, sailor outfits included. The mood darkens at The Foundry O with Vecna’s Mind Lair, before Sit in Soi delivers Floating Max, unsettling and oddly tender. It all ends at Chang Parking Lot with the WSQK van, a nostalgic farewell to a story that has followed us since 2016.

December 20-28. Free. Song Wat Road, 5-10pm

EMERGE returns for its fourth year, continuing a long-running effort to give new photography voices proper room to be seen. Launched in 2022, the project has already supported over 120 emerging artists, helping them step from classrooms and bedrooms towards galleries and wider audiences. This edition widens the frame with three connected exhibitions that hint at where Thai photography is heading next. An open call at BACC pop up invites artists aged 18-25, selected by figures who know the field well. The Editions at HOP Photo Gallery gathers standout thesis work from 2024-2025, full of risk, doubt and fresh perspective. Over at HOP CLUB, a zine showcase celebrates small publications as quiet records of the moment. 

December 20-February 22 2026. Free. 2/F, MunMun Srinakarin, 11am-7pm

Music in the Park returns after last year’s strong showing, slipping back quietly. As part of Road to BEATFOREST 2026, the Park Edition keeps things relaxed, built for slow afternoons and unhurried listening. Bring a mat, bring a friend, or come alone and let the grass do the work. The soundtrack comes from Krit Morton, RomRom and Suburb Sound, each adding their own shade to the day without demanding attention. It’s the kind of line-up that rewards staying put rather than hopping around. Alongside the music, organisers are giving away small potted plants, a gentle souvenir that feels more thoughtful than merch. Only 200 are available, so timing helps. Mostly, though, it’s an excuse to spend a few hours outdoors, listening together and pretending the week can wait a little longer.

December 20. Free. Near Dog Park entrance, Benchakitti Park, 4pm-7pm

Hope has a strange way of finding you when you least expect it, usually while you’re still adjusting your fringe in a mirrored wall. This exhibition leans into that feeling, pairing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with digital worlds that nudge you towards a lighter mood. The guide is Blossom Bloo, a soft-glowing creature with its loyal Seed, both drifting through scenes that chart the rhythms of a life lived in four chapters. The route begins at The Flower Shop, where you design a tiny seed that reappears later as part of a vast installation. Summer stretches out in a field of towering blooms, autumn follows with a golden oak shedding leaves that respond to your steps, then winter quietens everything with pale light and drifting snow. Spring closes the journey with a sweep of colour that feels a bit like exhaling after holding your breath too long.

Until March 26 2026. Free. 6/F, Iconsiam, 10am-10pm 

(In)visible Presence opens Dib Bangkok with a quiet confidence. Think a painted gust of wind, music shaped by half-remembered summers and the soft trace of herbal medicine lingering longer than expected. The show asks how we hold on to what matters when it cannot be seen, while also nodding to the many people, some now gone, who helped turn this museum from idea to place. Drawn from a collection built across three decades and widened through fresh collaborations, the exhibition gathers 81 works by 40 contemporary artists, several new to Thailand. Sound, scent and light do much of the talking. Across three floors, everyday materials shift, memories blur and imagination fills the gaps. A special focus on Montien Boonma closes the journey, offering space for reflection, healing and a slower way of looking.

December 21-August 3 2026. B150-700 via here. Dib Bangkok, 10am-6pm

This is a love letter to Thai script, treated not just as language but as material with its own moods and textures. The artists look at the alphabet the way some people study constellations, tracing patterns that shift from symbols to codes to shapes that no longer need spoken meaning. Centuries of cultural weight sit beneath each curve, yet the work feels refreshingly present, woven into the way design and visual culture move today. The show gathers painting, installation, print, sculpture and mixed media, each piece nudging the script into a new role. Some stay close to tradition, others stretch the form until it becomes something unfamiliar. All of it speaks to how language holds memory while shaping identity in ways we rarely pause to consider.

December 13-March 22 2026. Free. Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok ART Space by MOCA Bangkok, 10.30am-7.30pm

Nattan Kongmalikankaew’s solo show leads viewers through a spiritual terrain where the outside world and the inner mind meet, blurring the line between what is real and what is imagined. The paintings linger on that uneasy feeling of meeting the unfamiliar, the kind of uncertainty most of us would rather ignore. Part of what makes this exhibition so striking is how far his work has travelled. Earlier pieces from 2020 to 2021 focused on the human body caught in states of pressure and private struggle. Now nature takes centre stage, not as scenery but as a character with its own motives. These environments hold memory and identity in their folds, becoming mirrors for forces we can sense but never fully name.

December 7-January 11 2026. Free. Joyman Gallery, 11am-6pm

Tsai Kuen-Lin's solo exhibition does something radical: it makes rivers audible. During his residency, the artist submerged recording equipment beneath the Chao Phraya River, Ping River and Ang Kaew Lake, capturing underwater symphonies most of us will never hear. Mae Nam – Mother Water – treats these recordings as living archives rather than ambient noise. What makes this particularly compelling is his material shift: gone are the PVC pipes from earlier outdoor works, replaced now with clay and ceramics embedded with traces from those exact recording sites. Sound becomes tangible; earth meets liquid. It's an exhibition that asks you to reconsider water not as backdrop but as protagonist, carrying memories of communities who've shaped and been shaped by its currents. Wind, earth, water, fire – all four elements collapsed onto gallery walls, whispering stories we've forgotten how to hear.

Until January 10. Free. SAC Gallery, 11am-6pm

Japanese street artist Aruta Soup makes his significant Thai solo debut with work that refuses to take itself too seriously – a rarity in contemporary art spaces that often mistake solemnity for depth. His paintings marry free-flowing linework with colours that practically vibrate off the canvas, capturing a specific kind of joyful energy that feels increasingly difficult to manufacture. At the centre sits ‘ZERO,’ his bandaged rabbit character who's become something of a mascot for optimism despite looking like he's recently survived something unfortunate. The rabbit represents fresh starts and hope, which sounds almost painfully earnest until you see how Aruta Soup renders it: with enough playfulness to undercut any potential schmaltz. It's street art that's migrated indoors without losing its original spirit – still accessible, still speaking to connection rather than exclusion.

November 8-December 21. Free. Maison JE Bangkok, 11am-7pm