The best things to do in Bangkok this weekend (February 26-March 1)

You don’t have to be a conservatoire loyalist to feel at home at Myriam Ayari’s recital. The Belgian pianist has a knack for turning a formal concert into something far more conversational. She sits at the keyboard, yes, but she also talks briefly, thoughtfully, offering small signposts before each work so you know what to listen for and why it matters. It never feels like a lecture, more like a friend leaning over to share a secret. The programme circles around metamorphosis, tracing how themes evolve, fracture and, return altered. Under her hands, passages seem to shed one skin and slip on another. What lingers is not grandeur but closeness: a sense that the music shifts in front of you, responsive and alive, asking only that you meet it halfway.

February 26. B200-5oo via here (free for children under 12). Goethe-Institut Thailand, 7pm

Takuya Mitani lingers on that uneasy line between sweetness and the stranger instincts we prefer to keep tucked away. The starting point is a painting titled Tiny tiny Icarusy icarusia, a sideways nod to the Greek myth of Icarus. Here, the boy does not plummet in disgrace. Instead, he slips back into a kind of infantile regression, retreating from adult expectation towards something softer. The wax wings melt, yet it reads less as punishment, more as surrender, a drifting off rather than a crash. Six further canvases expand the idea. Girls appear adorned with ram horns, crocodile tails, artificial wings, each accessory doubling as armour. Beneath the decorative calm sits a flicker of wildness. The myth feels present tense, still reshaping itself before our eyes.

Until March 22. Free. Joyman Gallery, 11am-6pm

Held in honour of Her Royal Highness Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya, this concert opens the international ‘Russian Seasons’ project in Thailand with confident flair. Backed by the Government and Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the initiative travels the world presenting Russian artistry in many forms, from theatre and film to visual culture and education. Tonight, music takes the lead. At the centre stands Denis Matsuev, whose virtuosity carries the programme across classical repertoire and jazz-leaning improvisation. Conductor Yuri Tkachenko guides a cast of soloists through bright turns such as Candide Overture and playful reworkings of Flight of the Bumblebee. Even Spain finds a place. The mood shifts easily, tradition brushing against spontaneity, offering Thai audiences a portrait of Russian sound that feels both polished and alive.

February 26. B800-3,000 via here. Thailand Cultural Centre, 7.30pm

Sweating through rails of secondhand denim is hardly a rite of passage anyone asks for. This market flips the script, restoring actual cool to vintage hunting with a fully air-conditioned set up in the middle of the city. Set inside Kamphaeng Phet MRT, it’s a well-kept secret. More than 70 carefully chosen vendors line the space, stacked with throwback dresses, battered boots, sharp tailoring and odd little treasures you did not know you needed. A student-friendly corner keeps prices sensible without sacrificing taste. Between browsing, a small stage hosts emerging singers and local bands, giving the whole affair the easy charm of a neighbourhood gathering, only better dressed and blissfully climate controlled.

February 27-March 1. Free. Kamphaeng Phet MRT, 11am-9pm

Clear your weekend and call your friends. The Looker Community gathers its favourite names under one roof for a market that feels more like a reunion than a retail affair. Expect a tightly edited mix of fashion, vintage gems, offbeat design pieces and handmade crafts, alongside the sort of rare finds that prompt quiet triumph. Browsing happens at an easy pace and, yes, pets are welcome, so four-legged companions can weave between stalls as happily as their owners. As evening edges closer, the mood shifts. Dudesweet, Quay Records, Rattanagosound and Tapejam join a roster of familiar DJs, stretching the gathering well past sundown and keeping the Looker crowd exactly where it wants to be.

February 27-28. B150 at the door. Old Smoke Riverside, 5pm-midnight

Transport welcomes 2026 with its usual lack of restraint, favouring volume, sweat and a sense that tomorrow can wait. The night pulls together a line up that feels deliberately scattered, with Eternal Love, Anacalypto, Sol, Kornlee, Jeto, An!ka and a familiar resident presence anchoring the room. Friends fly in from different corners, records get shared like secrets and the floor fills before anyone thinks to check the time. What makes this party work isn’t scale or spectacle but trust. Trust in the selectors to read the room. Trust in the crowd to stay curious. Trust that things don’t need smoothing out to feel good. Expect moments of sweetness, sudden left turns and that particular Transport feeling where leaving early seems almost rude. It’s messy in the best way, held together by sound and stubborn joy.

February 28. B1,000-1,200 via here. ChangChui, midday-2am

A stretch of Bangkok pavement turns painterly this weekend as L'On Gallery gathers Thai and international creators for live street sessions. Easels line the road, brushes move in real time and conversations unfold as naturally as the layers of colour building on canvas. You can linger, ask about a technique, then pick up a collectible piece or browse crafts and local specialities without feeling hurried. Music drifts from jazz to pop, soul and folk, softening the city’s edges. This edition carries extra weight as photographer artists present work reflecting on the conflict in Thailand’s three southern border provinces. A portion of proceeds supports the Children's Hospital Foundation and Soi Dog Foundation, so your Saturday quietly gives back while you talk art on the curb.

February 28-March 1. Free Lan Luang Road to Chakkraphatdiphong Intersection, 4pm-10pm

An evening devoted to Haruomi Hosono traces the blueprint of modern Japanese sound. From pastoral folk to breezy pop, tropical flourishes to ambient electronics, his catalogue refuses to sit still. He helps usher synthesiser culture into Japan, shifting the landscape for everyone who follows. The session also tips its hat to Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto, alongside cuts from Yellow Magic Orchestra, mapping how their ideas ripple across global pop and experimental scenes. Every track spins on vinyl through No Spice Audio’s Mandrem speakers, built in the spirit of the classic Altec A7. The sound lands warm and full-bodied, exactly as those early pressings intend, inviting you to settle in and really listen.

February 28. Free. Register via here. STILL House, 2pm-6pm

After ten years adrift, the Viking Boat Party sails back onto the Chao Phraya River with horns, flags and a healthy sense of theatre. Organised by the Thai-Nordic Association and backed by sponsors including Singha, it gathers the Nordic crowd, their friends and the simply curious for a full day that feels part folklore, part Bangkok fever dream. The programme stretches from playful land-based challenges to sunset dining, before a night cruise glides past temple spires and glass towers. 

February 28. B1,200-1,600 via here. Bangkok Island, 4pm-11pm

Dogs rule the garden at this gloriously over the top gathering for Bangkok’s most social pups. The agility kit stands ready for high speed laps, while shaded corners invite you to trade training tales with fellow owners. A live band hums away nearby and every few steps feels suspiciously photogenic. Familiar faces pad through the crowd. Jay Dice arrives with his companion Choice, while mini favourites Mootoo and Metoo pose with Chang the cat and Bobby the capybara. Pet Omakase plates up tailored dishes, and Therapy Dog Thailand hosts a calm space for overstimulated tails. Add portraits from Dogue Studio and a showcase of cover star winners, and you have a pet party that takes itself just seriously enough.

February 28-March 1. Free. Paw Yard, 11am-8pm

Bangkok’s latest maker gathering feels like stepping inside a workshop where the future is assembled by hand. A new wave of creators turn raw materials, wires and code into curious machines, refusing to wait politely for tomorrow. The space hums with invention and the occasional whir of something that might or might not behave. Homemade battle robots clash in a metal-on-metal showdown, augmented reality worlds flicker across your phone and artificial intelligence demos that answer back with unsettling confidence. An interactive playground invites adults to forget dignity, while a cardboard parade encourages you to strap on monster armour and march at dusk. Art toy designers reveal their process, and wildly imaginative vehicles roll past, proof that creativity, when fuelled properly, can actually move.

February 28-March 1. Free. ChangChui, 1pm-7pm

Dr Mahmoud Safadi presents a solo exhibition that reads like pages from a lived diary. For him, painting goes beyond lines, forms and colour. Each canvas carries fragments of personal history alongside the wider story of the Palestinian people, holding endurance, memory, loss and a stubborn strain of hope in careful balance. You sense that every mark arrives with weight behind it. The opening takes place on Saturday February 28 at 6.30pm, with refreshments shared among guests and live music setting a reflective tone. Designer Dimas Angkling joins musician Issac Aesili for the evening, adding another layer of feeling to work that already speaks quietly yet firmly for itself.

February 28-March 14. Free. Bohemian Art Space, 10am-5pm

Rasmee Isan Soul has a voice that carries the dust of rice fields and the smokey hush of a late night bar in equal measure. She threads luk thung and mor lam through soul and jazz, folding Western instruments around traditional sounds without fuss. Singing in Isan dialect and Khmer, she moves between worlds with ease, having already taken that sound as far as France. For this evening, she strips things back for an acoustic set alongside Pakawat Tunsakun of the Kai Jo Brothers on keys. The setting at Payaq Gallery Cafe and Bar, a well loved grandmother’s house, walls crowded with art. Parking is scarce, so best to grab a ride and wander down the alley, ready to listen properly.

February 28. B666 via here. Payaq Gallery Cafe and Bar, 7pm

Beagle owners, consider this your group chat brought to life. BKK Dog Society gathers the city’s most floppy-eared citizens at Wachirabenchathat Park for an afternoon that understands one simple truth: beagles have energy to spare. Agility equipment dots the grass, giving them licence to sprint, leap and introduce themselves at top volume. While the hounds conduct their social calendar, humans can retreat to a shaded corner, swap stories and let the music soundtrack the scene. Photo spots appear across the park, ready for heroic poses or mid-zoom mishaps. Small gifts wait for those who turn up, though details stay secret. Other breeds are welcome too, and even dogless visitors can swing by for a serotonin boost.

March 1. Free. Register via here. Wachirabenchathat Park (Rot Fai Park), 4pm-6.30pm.

An evening in Bangkok offers space for reflection and solidarity with Palestinian communities through a screening of Al Awda. The 72-minute film follows 22 activists who set sail towards Gaza on a modest fishing boat, committed to non violence as they attempt to challenge the blockade. What begins as a gesture of peace soon meets the reality of confrontation with Israeli military forces in international waters, and the camera stays close to the human stakes. After the screening, filmmaker Jason Soo joins a 30- to 40-minute discussion, opening the floor to questions and shared thoughts. The film is presented in English with English subtitles.

March 1. Voluntary donation for film crowdfunding (suggested B150). Register via here. The Foundation of the Islamic Center of Thailand Masjid, 10am-midday

Brunch at La Monita Taqueria takes a detour to the Yucatan for one day only, as the kitchen joins forces with Chef Dustin Joseph and WE HUNGRY. The result is El Yucatan Brunch, a sunlit gathering that feels part feast, part daytime fiesta. DJs set the rhythm, artists paint live and the whole place leans towards open air revelry rather than polite eggs and coffee. At the centre sits a ceremonial cochinita pibil, a whole hog slow-roasted with achiote and sour orange, carved generously into tacos and plates. Black chilaquiles, huevos motuleños and longaniza roja omelettes round out the menu, alongside street favourites such as salbutes and castacan. Tropical cocktails keep glasses clinking well past noon, encouraging you to linger.

March 1. Reserve via 092-750-6777. La Monita Taqueria, 11am-5pm

Your nervous system gets top billing at this all day gathering that treats sound as both remedy and revelry. The morning opens with healing and sound meditation, easing you out of autopilot and back into your own breathing. By 1.15pm, the talk session Beyond The Noise takes a more analytical turn, examining how constant urban clamour affects the body and mind in ways we rarely clock. From 3pm to 5pm, the healing experience continues, grounding the theory in something felt rather than merely discussed. As dusk settles, things loosen up. A multi-stage silent DJ session runs from 5pm to 10pm, headphones on, channels at your fingertips. You pick the mood, switch frequencies at will and dance in a crowd that somehow feels both communal and entirely personal.

March 1. B790-990 via here. House Lagom, 1pm-10pm

Pansan Klongdee builds his latest installation around a car that refuses to be defined. Activated through sound and live performance, the work opens with a BMW E34 salvaged from a junkyard off Rama II, its body intact, its future already sealed. The vehicle sits in a kind of purgatory: no longer fully machine, not yet scrap metal. That suspended condition shapes the entire enquiry. Speakers hum, performers circle, gestures repeat as if rehearsing a farewell. Metal becomes witness rather than object. The piece asks how we acknowledge things once their function fades, how we stage rituals for non-human lives and how release sometimes looks less like disappearance and more like a quiet change of state.

Until March 15. Free. Bangkok Kunsthalle, 2pm-8pm

This exhibition asks a gentle but stubborn question: what if the profound sits quietly on your kitchen table. It suggests discovery has less to do with novelty and more to do with attention, the kind that spots a mountain hidden behind a single strand of hair. What rests within reach often escapes notice. Awareness forms through living, watching, reflecting and sensing how time nudges everything along. The room feels hushed, yet movement carries on through deliberate brushstrokes and thin washes of layered pigment. Still-life motifs hold tension between permanence and erosion, solidity and fragility, like tongue against teeth. Each element leans on its opposite. The painterly language distils small daily fragments, revealing a world in steady transformation, including the restless terrain of the mind.

Until March 8. Free. KYLA Gallery, 3pm-midnight

STILL House stands quietly among the glass towers of Asoke, a restored heritage home that favours memory over gloss. Its latest chapter exhibition unfolds through a collaboration between NORSE Republics and &Tradition, a name long associated with Danish craft and considered modernism. Rooms shift from domestic familiarity to thoughtful installation. Chairs, lamps and objects sit not as showroom pieces but as prompts for touch and contemplation. Soft scent lingers, sound hums gently, small tastings appear during workshops that encourage slowing down. The exhibition frames design as lived experience rather than static display, offering a brief retreat from the city’s insistence on speed without losing sight of its context.

Until April 15. Free. STILL House, 10am-7pm

Takuya Mitani paints girls who look as if they step from a dream you almost remember. Rooted in Pop Surrealism and Symbolism, his exhibition studies the thin line between purity and the stranger instincts we prefer to dress up politely. Six canvases present young figures adorned with ram horns, crocodile tails and carefully constructed wings. These details read less as fantasy than armour, protective gear for souls that feel both tender and feral. Each composition balances sweetness with unease, decorative calm brushing against something watchful beneath the surface. Mitani suggests myth never disappears; it adapts, shifts shape and lingers in modern life. The work asks you to look twice, then reconsider what innocence really protects.

February 22-March 22. Free. Joyman Gallery, 11am-6pm

An exhibition confronting Thai democracy arrives with unsettling clarity, pairing Manit Sriwanichpoom and Akkara Naktamna in a conversation that feels both personal and painfully public. Their works sketch daily existence beneath rigid political scripts where citizenship becomes an endurance test rather than an act of participation. Photographs and installations lean on sharp metaphors: veiled faces, constricted bodies, environments that appear breathable yet quietly hostile. Each piece questions authority’s gentle language while revealing how control slips through education, media, ritual. Viewers are left wondering what belief even means when vision feels filtered and breath negotiated. Are citizens misled, or simply surviving within limits imposed long before consent? The exhibition asks uncomfortable questions without promising answers, suggesting delusion may not belong to individuals alone but to a system sustained by repetition, fear and uneasy silence.

Until April 12. Free. West Eden Gallery, 11am-6pm

Thai illustrator Lili Tae, also known as Phindita Techamongkhalaphiwat, presents a solo exhibition curated by Jason Yang that feels like stepping through shifting layers of memory, dream and landscape. Her digital paintings grow from quiet encounters with forests, wandering paths and unexpected meetings with flora and fauna, reshaped through a deeply personal lens. Soft brushwork meets luminous colour, allowing realism to brush against fantasy and moments of gentle surrealism without losing emotional clarity. Figures appear suspended between waking life and subconscious reflection, suggesting stories half remembered rather than fully explained. Natural textures echo skin, water, leaves and shifting weather, giving each image a tactile presence despite its digital form. Viewers wander through scenes that feel intimate yet expansive, reflecting how imagination reshapes daily observation without ever fully separating from lived experience.

Until March 16. Free. GalileOasis Gallery, 9am-8pm

February Sundays gain a leisurely rhythm with Sunday Jazzy Brunch, a month-long series pairing thoughtful cooking with live jazz that gently reshapes the usual weekend routine. Each week introduces a new culinary theme, encouraging returning guests to experience familiar surroundings through fresh flavours and seasonal ingredients handled with quiet confidence. Expect towers of chilled seafood, flame kissed specialities and shareable plates designed for lingering conversation rather than hurried bites. Atmosphere leans warm and unpretentious, allowing romance to appear naturally without staged theatrics. The Namsai Trio provide an elegant soundtrack, their intimate arrangements drifting through the room like a soft afternoon breeze. Friends gather around generous tables, couples settle close over sparkling glasses, solo visitors find easy comfort among strangers united by music, laughter and the unspoken joy of slowing down.

Every Sunday. Starts at B1,500. Reserve via 02-649-8888. Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, midday-3pm

Hands still matter, even now. At Rosewood Bangkok, Made in Thai-Hands arrives through a collaboration with Play Art House, offering a thoughtful look at living craft traditions shaped by patience rather than speed. Curated by independent artist Seada Samdao, the exhibition brings together 10 Thai artists working between inherited techniques and contemporary thinking, without treating either as fixed. Moving through the space feels like travelling across different landscapes, guided by texture, material and touch. Threads hold hours of quiet labour, pigment settles through instinct and surfaces reveal years of repetition. Nothing rushes for attention. Instead, each work carries the weight of human effort and the calm confidence that comes from knowing a process deeply. While the rhythms of making remain central, the voices feel current, led by a generation carrying tradition forward with clarity rather than reverence. Craft here feels alive, personal and quietly defiant.

Until March 20. Free. G/F, Rosewood Bangkok, 9am-9pm

Song Wat turns playful without losing its sense of history. For Bangkok Design Week, the district becomes a walkable board game, stretching across streets that once carried trade, gossip and daily deals. Building on the earlier manhole cover project, this new chapter invites visitors to play merchant, navigating landmarks and stories that shaped the neighbourhood’s working life. Set along Song Wat Road at Tuk Khaek, Merchants of Song Wat reimagines the area as a network of warehouses and shops. Players move as caravans, trading goods, striking bargains with local businesses and slowly building their own corner of commerce. The rules stay friendly, the visuals clear, drawing from familiar colours and signs around the area. 

January 29-February. Free. Song Wat, 2pm-8pm on weekdays and 1pm-7pm on weekends.

A Kid from Yesterday returns with a fifth solo outing that feels quietly defiant. Somphon ‘Paolo’ Ratanavaree’s latest body of work steps back from certainty and sits without knowing, a rare move in a culture obsessed with definitions. Titled “Just” BEING BE/NG BE—NG, the exhibition borrows from Camus’ Philosophy of Sisyphus while nodding to the calm discipline of a Zen garden. The result isn’t comfort or escape, but acceptance of contradiction. Cigarettes sit opposite raked sand, everyday habits facing ritual stillness, neither winning the argument. This space doesn’t promise healing or answers. It allows doubt to exist without apology. Being human here means pausing, noticing and carrying on regardless. In a world eager for declarations, the show suggests something softer and braver: existing without explanation might already be enough.

January 17-March 1. Free. Street Star Gallery, 8am-6pm

Bangkok welcomes 2026 with a knowing wink as Muse Anime Festival sets up at JAM SPACE, a familiar meeting point for pop culture devotees. This is less trade fair, more shared obsession. Fourteen anime titles spread across 17 photo zones turn fandom into a walk-through experience, complete with oversized sets and scenes designed for lingering rather than rushing. Expect towering inflatables of Momo and Okarun from DAN DA DAN plus Rimuru, the eternally cheerful slime, looming large for cameras. Beyond the visuals, shelves fill with officially licensed pieces and harder-to-find imports, tempting even the disciplined collector. Food gets its own moment too, thanks to a themed cafe riffing on SPY x FAMILY and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. 

January 10-March 29. Free. 4/F, MBK Centre, 11am-9pm