The best things to do in Bangkok this weekend (September 24-27)

If you can lose serious time admiring a watch, Wela Bangkok deserves a look. The new fair brings more than 17 independent and emerging brands to Jim Thompson Art Center, including Nectere from Hong Kong, Perrelet and Nivada Grenchen from Switzerland and Atelier Holgur from Denmark. Thai and Peruvian food, an Argentinian bakery, drinks from Cafe des Stagiaires and DJ sets give you reasons to linger beyond the dials. Three brands will unveil special releases, including Thailand limited editions and what organisers call the world’s first ‘Thai-plication’. Entry is free with online registration, so register here before heading over.

September 25-27. Free entry. Jim Thompson Art Center. 11am-6pm

Back for its second year, Siam Paragon Bangkok Watch Week 2026 brings together more than 45 leading watch brands, 50% percent more than last year. Major maisons, independent watchmakers and collectors for new releases, exhibitions and fine-watchmaking showcases from September 22-27. The Fondation Haute Horlogerie, an organisation dedicated to horological art and culture, also joins the programme. Organisers expect more than 400 international collectors and 40,000 visitors, a sizeable turnout for Bangkok’s growing watch community.

Until September 27. Free entry. Siam Paragon. 10 am

Remember doodling in the margins of your school notebooks? A new interactive installation at bit.studio gallery, Doooodles, gives that familiar habit a communal twist. Pick up a marker, add your own sketches and watch the canvas change as other visitors join in. Unexpected connections form between everyone’s scribbles, with no training or carefully planned masterpiece required. Just grab a pen, let your imagination wander and see what happens when your drawing meets someone else’s.

Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. B200-450. bit.studio gallery. 2pm-8pm

Bangkok’s streets look rather different when you leave the car at home. For this year’s Car Free Festival, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is encouraging residents to rethink everyday journeys by walking, cycling, running, catching a bus, hopping on a boat or taking the train. The festival runs September 20-27, so consider swapping the usual traffic jam for a few stops on public transport. The full programme is still under wraps, but previous editions featured talks and pop-ups about car-free travel. Keep an eye on the BMA’s channels for updates.

September 20-27. Free entry. City wide. Check the schedule here.

You probably know Idris Elba from Luther or The Wire, but the actor also spends plenty of time behind the decks. On Saturday September 26, he brings his DJ project, billed simply as ‘IDRIS’, to Cloud 11 Theatre for Sound International, a house night by Asia-based agency Collective Minds. Bangkok favourites Wildealer and Elaheh join him, both familiar names to anyone following the city’s club scene. The night’s ‘Never-ending House’ concept promises festival-grade sound and a dancefloor-first set-up.

September 26. B2,690 via here. Cloud 11 Theatre. 7.45pm

MOLLY marks 20 years with a Bangkok exhibition following earlier stops in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. The show traces the character’s story through Kenny Wong’s sketches, original artworks, drawings and figures from different periods, revealing how her identity has developed. Artists and craftspeople from different cultures also offer their own interpretations through painting, embroidery, paper-cutting, ceramics and traditional handicrafts. It’s a close-up look at MOLLY’s history up close, with contemporary art and cultural heritage sharing the gallery.

September 24-October 25. B290-390 via here. Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park.

Korakrit Arunanondchai’s new solo exhibition Love After Death combines video, performance documentation and scenes from a film shot in a disused cinema in Lopburi. Described as autofiction, the show reworks material from the Bangkok and New York-based artist’s earlier moving-image projects alongside fictional narration inspired by the Lanna legend of the Sihuhata, a mythical creature that eats coal and excretes gold. Arunanondchai has shown at MoMA PS1 and Palais de Tokyo and co-founded Ghost Foundation in 2018 to support video and performance art in Thailand.

September 25-November 14. Free entry. Bangkok Citycity Gallery. 1pm-6pm

Negroni Week returns with bars and restaurants worldwide raising money for hospitality and community programmes through the Negroni Week Fund. In Bangkok, Stella Bar at Capella Bangkok hosts masterclasses and guest shifts with Monica Berg, Alex Kratena, Iain McPherson and Erik Lorincz, while Giorgio Bargiani takes over Aman Lounge. A bar-hopping trail covers Soi Nana, Sathorn and Song Wat in Bangkok, plus Chiang Mai, guided by hand-drawn maps from Thai artist Karoon Jiamviriyasathian. Brunches at Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok and Andaz One Bangkok round out the week.

September 21-27. Bars across Bangkok.

Stillwave brings Cosmic Current to the newly renovated Grand Ballroom at Royal Orchid Sheraton Riverside, with two three-hour sound-bath sessions overlooking the Chao Phraya River. Six Thai sound artists and practitioners – Bestrip, Air Napakorn, Natthew, Juthaphat Bandaiphet, Techit Choeypuang and Apisit Wongchoti – guide participants through gongs, electronic sounds, breathwork and live music. Mattresses are provided, alongside scents from PHUTAWAN, coffee from BEANS Coffee Roaster and drinks from BIBI. Wear comfortable clothes and expect plenty of lying down, listening and quiet time.

September 26. B2,499 via here. Royal Orchid Sheraton Riverside. 9.30am-12.30pm and 3.30pm-6.30pm

Bangkok International Film Festival 2026 screens 40 films at SF World Cinema, centralwOrld. The programme spans Europe, Asia and beyond, with Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur among the highlights. Other picks include Yellow Letters, about a Turkish artist couple facing state pressure, and Nagi Notes, following two women who meet at turning points in rural Japan. The festival closes with Chong Keat Aun’s Mother Bhumi, starring Fan Bingbing as a widowed farmer and traditional healer in 1990s Malaysia.

Until September 27. Free entry. SF World Cinema, centralwOrld. Check the line-up here

MŌCANA Sound II brings live music, DJs and experimental sound together, treating the room as one large listening session. Performances move between instruments, electronic sets and improvisation, with musicians and DJs responding to the room rather than staying in separate lanes. The line-up includes Beetkat, Yellow Fang, Maakornchai, Soulelectric Jams, Claudine, AN!KA, Durian Radio and Tom Aquilina and IYY. Expect familiar club rhythms alongside less predictable sounds, both between sets and on the dancefloor.

September 26. B1,000-1,200 via here. 9/F, EmQuartier Helix. From 6pm

Saturday in Song Wat gets more sociable as Kodangs and Sabai Run Club bring their limited-edition collection to the street. Running from 4.30pm to 10pm, the event has tea, snacks, music and a round Chinese table where guests can sit, chat and pass things around. There’s also a Flashback photobooth, a bingo card designed to get strangers talking and a first look at the collection. Instead of a standard merch launch, the day centres on the neighbourhood, with the shop as a starting point and the street outside becoming part of the event.

September 26. Free entry. RSVP here. Kodangs Song Wat Flagship Store. 4pm-10pm

Experimental music returns to GalileOasis with Noise of the Month, a monthly programme built around unlikely combinations. This edition pairs Nora – a centuries-old Southern Thai dance-drama combining stylised movement, music and storytelling – in Nopera the Show by B35. The experimental group blends Southern Thai folk traditions with jazz and avant-garde music. Traditional thap, gong, ching and Nora pi share the stage with modern instruments and plenty of improvisation. Young Nora performer Prames Praneet Silp, continuing the tradition from Nakhon Si Thammarat, brings movement into the mix.

September 26. B450 via here. GalileOasis. 4pm

Kangkao Collective returns with Red Line, a club night built around the tension between restraint and release. Gero, Payu, Jirus and Meltmode take over the Main Room, while Lsyndrome, Tulwai, Issasha, Tapejam, DJ Tada and Bugsyy keep the Creature Room  moving. The pace builds as the night goes on, with low lighting, heavy sound and two dancefloors to move between.

September 26. B700-800 via here. DUAL. 4pm-am

Stupid Stay in Charoen Nakhon launches its Artist in Residence programme with illustrator and graphic designer Nene Nuntawan Jamsai, aka nnene.iie. During her stay, Nene is creating work drawn from everyday neighbourhood life, from small local details to the people and places she encounters. The pieces appear throughout the hotel, turning it into a compact exhibition to browse while exploring the space. A workshop with Nene lets visitors make something themselves rather than simply viewing the finished work.

Until October 1. Free entry. Stupid Stay. 11am-8pm