The best things to do in Bangkok this weekend (April 30-May 3)

Bangkok gets its own jazz gathering again, nearly two decades after the last one faded out. Led by Pajaree Sanguanprasert, the Scatt Jazz Bangkok Jazz Festival sets out to rebuild that sense of ownership, while opening the door to something broader. Quick note: this isn’t the old Bangkok Jazz Festival revived. A different team, a different spirit. Still, that long gap lingers, and this answers it. Workshops bring musicians, bands and curious listeners closer to artists from the World Jazz Network alongside leading Thai players. Rehearsals lead to collaborative sets, before a final concert gathers everything together. Jazz here acts as exchange, conversation and shared ground.

Until May 2. Free. Register via here. Srinakharinwirot University Prasarnmit Demonstration School (Secondary).

A one-night gathering lands at Speakerbox in Thonglor, bringing local and international artists together across folk, alt-country and bluegrass in a close, low-lit setting. Sao Moonlight Gypsy tops the bill, folding indie-folk honesty through rhythmic passages and softer, more haunting ballads. Sao performs alongside Don (guitar), Kim (bass) and Jued (violin), building a layered live set shaped by storytelling and tight musicianship. Uncle Tree, the solo project of Natee Sridokmai, follows with warm acoustics and reflective songwriting. A member of Selina and Sirinya, he appears here with Geoff Nostrant on flute. Fleur Wiber adds alt-country and psychedelic folk, fresh from Catch Fire and Live at Noise House Lat Phrao. Little Brothers close with bluegrass standards, banjo-led and built for easy camaraderie.

April 30. B400 via here and B500 at the door. Speakerbox. 7pm onwards

Many know Rajadamnern Stadium as a place to watch Muay Thai, but step inside and it quickly reads as something deeper – a living monument to Thai heritage, strength and spirit. The action starts at 8.10pm, as fighters enter the ring with ritual and rhythm setting the tone before each bout. Every strike lands with purpose, every cheer carries weight. Looking for something memorable after dark? This one delivers. Watching a fight here goes beyond spectacle, each movement and tradition reflecting the country’s cultural backbone.
Everyday. B1,500 via here. Rajadamnern Stadium. 8pm onwards

Vintage shoppers, take note – and bring cash. Hey! Thrift returns to its original riverside spot at Mahapho Riverview on Song Wat Road, and it’s every bit as packed as you remember. Anyone who caught the first round knows the drill: racks loaded with secondhand clothing, plenty of solid finds at prices that don’t sting, plus accessories and small home decor pieces scattered throughout. Food and drink stalls line the edge, with views across the Chao Phraya River keeping things easygoing. Already planning a wander around Song Wat? Add this to your route.

May 1-3. Free. Mahapho Riverview. 2pm-9pm

The long-awaited flea for vintage lovers returns with BANAKÉ x MICHELUI 2026 EP.2, and this round goes bigger, bolder and more iconic by design. The setting shifts from PAPAYA Studio to Hua Lamphong Railway Station, one of the city’s most storied landmarks, giving the whole thing a cinematic edge. Inside, it runs as a full vintage community. Spend hours moving between furniture and home décor zones, rare finds and pieces that verge on one-of-a-kind. Fashion gets a strong showing too, with tightly curated rails aimed at serious collectors. Food and drink stalls keep things ticking from afternoon until midnight, making it easy to stay longer than planned, meet people and catch a soundtrack that carries the night through.

May 1-4. B200 via here at B250 at the door. Hua Lamphong. 2pm-mignight

Cheeze Pop-up Market returns with a fresh excuse to update your wardrobe, pairing fashion finds with live sets at Flea Spirit – Market & Music. More than 80 vendors set up shop, covering everything from clothing, shoes, bags and accessories to vintage pieces, home décor and plenty of low-key gems worth a closer look. Take your time with it. The layout suits an easy wander, with stalls that reward a bit of patience. This round adds a stronger music line-up, with carefully picked artists stepping up for live performances that carry the evening forward. Once you’ve secured a few new favourites, stick around, grab a drink and let the soundtrack take over for the rest of the night.

May 1-4. Free. MunMun Srinakarin. 10.30am-9pm

Early May calls for a slower plan. Swap packed bars for a glasshouse screening where greenery frames the screen and the evening air carries the mood. Another sweet detail: pets are welcome. Dogs curl up by your feet, cats rest quietly in carriers, and no one bats an eyelid. The atmosphere stays easy, a touch whimsical and gently sociable without trying too hard. Six films line up for the run: 500 Days of Summer, Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story, Inside Out, Night at the Museum, School of Rock, About Time. Expect a mix of romance, comfort watches and crowd-pleasers, the kind you half-quote along with while the night settles around you.

May 1-3. B550 via here. SAMA Garden.

Picture a Bangkok street where artists work in front of you, jazz drifts through the air and conversation comes easily between stalls. That’s the mood as the fourth Bangkok Art Walk returns to Chakraphong Road and Lan Luang Road, bringing art, collectibles, home decor, music and playful activities together across six weekends. It starts on April 25-26 and May 2-3 with art, books, vinyl and cassette shops, ideal for a slow browse and a few well-chosen finds. On May 16-17 and May 23-24, street art takes focus alongside fashion stalls and wellness activities such as city running and cycling. The final weekends, June 13-14 and June 20-21, close with an art market, plus plant shops and pet goods for a softer finish.

June 21. Free. Chakraphong Road and Lan Luang Road. 4pm-10pm

Nothing Sacred turns cocktail bar for one night as MODERN-DAY CULTURE takes over the entire space. Expect a custom drinks list built around house ferments alongside their own signatures, with vinyl spinning from start to finish. The pairing makes sense – both share a distinct flavour and sound, and the night brings them together without overthinking it. The kitchen lines up its cosiest, most comforting ferments for a special à la carte menu, bringing back favourites that regulars always ask for seconds of. Every dish lands familiar yet slightly reworked. A first for the venue: the balcony opens, giving more room to settle in and catch the full Nothing Sacred x Modern Day experience.

May 2. Reserve via info@nothingsacredbkk.com. Nothing Sacred. 6pm onwards

Hard techno takes centre stage for one night, with Max Durante landing in Bangkok for the first time. A long-standing figure of the underground, he steps up for a two-hour vinyl set, no shortcuts, no digital crutches. Max starts his DJ career in 1987, later becoming a resident at Tresor Berlin in 2017, and has played across global stages since the early 90s. His reputation rests on raw selections and a stripped-back approach that stays true to techno’s roots. Expect him behind the decks in his signature balaclava, a look he wears long before it becomes a trend. Two hours, all vinyl, all focus – a rare chance to catch one of the originals at full force.

May 2. B300-350 via here. BERLIN BKK. 8pm

Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok launches its first Weekend Brunch with El Sabor de Cinco de Mayo, bringing a lively daytime crowd together over bold Latin American cooking with Thai touches. Expect a sociable setup with live entertainment running through the afternoon, setting an easy, celebratory tone. Food comes via interactive stations, including a Ceviche & Aguachile Bar and an Anticuchos & Satay Grill, alongside a playful spread of bites and brunch staples. On the music front, Siam Cubano runs through Salsa, Bachata and Merengue, while DJ Camilo keeps energy levels high behind the decks. A new brunch format for the hotel, and one that lands with confidence.

May 2-3. B1,990-3,490 via here. Bar.Yard. Midday-3pm

An open-air rooftop party lands in the heart of Bangkok, set against a full 360 city view. The setup keeps things simple: deep house, minimal grooves and a steady build as daylight shifts and the skyline starts to glow. Music carries the night forward without pause. Once the sun drops and the terrace winds down, the crowd moves indoors for a dedicated afterparty in the club room, keeping the same energy but dialled a touch darker. Expect a custom sound system brought in for the occasion, alongside tailored production across both spaces. The Resonate crew runs the whole thing, shaping a night that moves smoothly from open sky to enclosed floor without losing its rhythm.

May 2. Guestlist only. DM Instagram @resonatethailand for more info.

Lumphini Park runs a little busier right now as it marks its 100th year, with International Jazz Day arriving at just the right moment. While celebrations spill across the city, International Jazz Day: In the Key of Peace keeps things grounded with an open-air gathering shaped around access and community, organised by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s Music Division with UNESCO Bangkok. The programme moves from emerging talent to established names, featuring Horwang School Big Band (Horwang Music Academy), Casean Consonant and Bangkok Big Band, each offering their own take on jazz’s wide repertoire. Two guest performers close the bill: Koh Mr. Saxman with his smooth phrasing, and Saxpackgirl bringing a more contemporary edge.

May 3. Free. Lumphini Hall. 3pm onwards

Colour takes the lead in CHROMATIC: A Journey Through Neighborhood Color, a photography exhibition tracing people, culture and daily life across three central Bangkok districts: Song Wat, Pak Khlong Talat and Phahurat. Here, colour works as more than surface detail, linking identity, memory and place across each frame. The images capture movement across streets shaped by trade, vendors and long-standing routines, where community life unfolds in steady rhythm. Expect scenes that shift between quiet observation and busier moments, each grounded in everyday experience. The exhibition forms part of WALKK: Bangkok Re-Birth, a wider programme inviting visitors to trace stories shaped by time, changing ways of life and the city’s historic quarters.

Until May 31. Free. TAY Songwat. 9.30am-5.30pm

Passakorn Pachana turns his gaze seaward with Sea Reverie, a solo show that hovers between recollection and shifting tide. Each canvas captures a fleeting state – a storm gathering, a lull settling, light changing by the hour – so the view never quite holds still. Colour does most of the emotional work, moving from brooding swells to calmer stretches, while the shoreline slips between the tangible and the imagined. Anemones, shells, fish and birds thread through like half-remembered details. Spend time here and the horizon begins to echo something closer to home, as if each scene carries a mood you recognise but can’t quite place.

Until May 3. Free. KYLA Gallery and Wine Bar. 3pm-midnight

Coffee in Italy rarely stands alone. It arrives with ritual, design and a certain sense of theatre, and Passione Italiana: L’Arte dell’Espresso leans fully into that idea. Curated by Elisabetta Pisu with Distortion Studio, the exhibition brings historic espresso machines together with sculptural objects that trace how coffee shapes daily life. Alessandro Mendini’s playful designs sit alongside rare pieces from the Mumac museum, each carrying its own story of craft and innovation. Talksopen up conversations around culture, sustainability and ritual, with speakers including Tomaso Mannu and Massimiliano Marchesi. In the evenings, the mood softens into Jazz & Coffee sessions, where Bruno Brugnano joins the Bangkok New Trio for sets that pair sound with aroma in a quietly absorbing way.

April 24-May 12. Free. Nextopia, Siam Paragon. 10am-7pm

First staged in Cheongju Craft Biennale, this group exhibition arrives in Bangkok following a debut as the Invited Country Pavilion in Cheongju, South Korea. The project grows from an ongoing exchange between Thailand and the Republic of Korea, setting craft alongside contemporary art across Southeast and East Asia. At its core sits ‘Elastic Time’, a curatorial thread that questions how time behaves across the region. Forget neat timelines. Here, past, present and future overlap, repeat and quietly reshape one another. The Cheongju edition sets the tone as a cross-cultural conversation, where material, process and memory carry equal weight. Artists approach craft not as something fixed, but as a way to consider what unfolds now, and what might come next.

Until August 16. Free. Jim Thompson Art Center. 10am-6pm

Noo Monthip moves across disciplines with quiet ease, shaping voice, music, fashion and image without ever insisting on attention. This exhibition gathers what she leaves behind, assembled by family and friends who understand that her work speaks best when given space. ‘Wind’ becomes a gentle thread. You don’t see it, but you feel its presence in motion, much like memory that lingers, shifts and returns in unexpected ways. The ground floor, Baan Sailom, invites a slower pace, a place to sit and reflect. Upstairs, her life unfolds through sound, images and objects that feel deeply personal. A music corner hums beside fragments of writing. Another level brings fashion and collaborations, offering a fuller sense of how she connects with others, softly but unmistakably.

Until April 30. Free. Museum Pier, 10am-6pm

A contemporary exhibition and workshop programme takes on questions of security and precarity within today’s art landscape, focusing on those often left at the edges. The project centres Thai artists aged 40-plus who continue working without institutional backing, whether overlooked by selection systems or quietly stepping away from formal circuits out of necessity. The programme creates space for these voices without dressing them up, pairing exhibitions with workshops that favour exchange over instruction. 

Until May 31. Free. Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, 10am-8pm

sits firmly in the category of places you keep having to return to. But this time, it feels different. The concept leans on the ocean after dark, when sunlight disappears and whole ecosystems carry on unseen. You wander through shifting light, sometimes above the waterline, sometimes beneath it, with bioluminescent creatures flickering softly around you. Details keep catching your eye. A neon wall answers your touch with imagined marine life. Seahorses glow under tinted light, rainforest corners bloom with luminous flora, and a quiet full moon hangs over goldfish. In the shark tunnel, silver ripples mimic night tides, while Gentoo penguins stand beneath drifting northern lights. Even the familiar route feels refreshed, with a small stamp trail guiding the way.

Until September 20. Starts at B449 via here. SEA LIFE Bangkok

Thanwa Huangsmut takes familiar expectations and quietly pulls them apart, piece by piece. His paintings rely on instinct as much as discipline, balancing assured brushwork with colour that feels almost unruly at first glance. Figures seem caught mid-shift, held between movement and control, as if testing how much space they can claim for themselves. The question lingers without insisting on an answer: do we truly own our lives, or simply perform within inherited limits? Each canvas suggests a different response, shaped through texture, rhythm and carefully measured composition. What stays with you is less a conclusion and more a feeling, a quiet encouragement to stand firm, to choose deliberately, and to carry that choice with a certain grace.

Until May 3. Free. Joyman Gallery, 11am-6pm

Grey rarely settles comfortably within beauty. It lingers between light and dark, feeling and logic, never fully choosing a side. In In the Midst of Gray, Chainarong follows that in-between state through Chawky, a character who carries the quiet weight of growing up without quite knowing how to answer their own emotions. Encounters pass, connections form, affection deepens, then shifts. Not everything finds resolution. Some moments blur, others stay unexpectedly sharp. Chawky moves through this uncertainty with a kind of soft detachment, as if standing just outside their own story. The works feel reflective without becoming heavy. They ask simple questions that don’t quite settle: which memories stay brightest, and why do certain feelings refuse to fade, even as everything else slowly recedes?

Until May 3. Free. Supples Gallery, 11am-6pm

Seven voices meet on the same wall, each shaped by different cities yet speaking through the same visual code. Artists from Thailand, France and Switzerland treat graffiti less as rebellion and more as a shared language, one that carries stories of ambition, missteps and quiet persistence. Styles shift from sharp lettering to loose, almost instinctive forms, but a sense of dialogue holds everything together. Youth lingers here, with all its uncertainty and small acts of bravery. Misjudgments sit beside moments of clarity, neither cancelling the other. What stays is the belief that expression matters, even when direction feels unclear, and that instinct often knows before certainty catches up.

March 20-May 3. Free. Maison JE Bangkok, 11am-7pm

Bangkok does not always demand skyscraper gazing. Sometimes it hands you a pocket-sized booklet and suggests a long walk. The BAC Passport returns with its Winter Edition 2026, turning the city into a living sketchbook where each stamp is an achievement. You pick up the passport, roam between art spaces, collect marks and trade them for souvenirs created by actual artists. It plays out like a cultural scavenger hunt, only with better stories to tell afterwards. This season gathers 27 destinations and splits them across four routes, from Old Town corners to riverbank hideouts. Pick up your passport at one of seven locations, including Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Center, Bangkok City Library, Chula Museum, River City Bangkok, Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music, Asvin or Numthong Art Space. You have until May 31 to complete the journey.

 Until May 31. Free. Art spaces across Bangkok.

Call it a citywide fixation: One Piece takes over Bangkok with surprising ease. Fans who once followed Luffy on small screens now find those stories stretched across real space. Netflix brings a slice of the Grand Line to Lumpini Park, yet ICONSIAM answers with something more immersive: a 600-square-metre pop-up café that plays like a living archive. Scenes from past arcs reappear as walkable sets, while newly issued wanted posters chart the crew’s long evolution. A stamp trail links ten zones, gently guiding visitors across the space. At the centre, a five-metre Gear 5 Luffy looms with cartoonish confidence, slightly surreal, unmistakably designed for photographs and quiet disbelief.

Until 31 October. Free. ICONSIAM, 10am-8.30pm