Our picks for the best things to do in Bangkok this weekend

Thailand’s largest and longest-running international motor show returns once again, officially recognised by the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles. The event brings together leading global car manufacturers, regional brands and emerging EV companies. Visitors can expect major launches, concept cars and important market debuts for Thailand and Southeast Asia. Large exhibition booths feature production vehicles across every category, including electric cars, performance models, luxury brands and motorcycles. Accessories, aftermarket products and special promotions are also available, with many visitors placing orders directly at the show.  Challenger Hall, Impact Muang Thong Thani. March 25-April 5. Monday-Friday noon-10pm, Saturday-Sunday 11am-10pm

A last call feels overdue at Bangkok Planetarium, which prepares to close on March 30 for a long-awaited refresh. Since 1964, the domed theatre has quietly shaped how generations here imagine the sky, all reclining seats and soft narration. Monthly programmes rotate between educational reels and space-age fantasies, keeping each visit slightly different yet comfortingly familiar. That sense of nostalgia lingers, especially if you grew up visiting on school trips or slow weekends. The coming renovation promises change, though it also means a pause until late 2026. For now, the original setting remains intact, ready for one more visit. Go soon, take your time, and let the stars hold your attention before the lights dim. Until March 30. B30-50 at the door. Bangkok Planetarium, 9am-4pm

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

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

It dictates cravings, stretches lunch breaks and tests bravado. Once a year that fiery obsession takes centrestage at Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok, which transforms into a roaming kitchen for Chilli Fest, now in its fourth round. Michelin-calibre names cook alongside neighbourhood favourites, each interpreting heat through their own lens. Thai curries sit beside Mexican aguachile, Korean spice meets Punjabi street fare and Southern Thai fire shares space with Spanish-Japanese tapas. You wander, taste, compare notes. As sunset nears, attention shifts to the Chilli Eating Contest. Contestants climb towards peppers measuring 2.2 million on the Scoville scale. The crowd winces, laughs and waits for the final, tearful triumph. March 28. B250-B800 via here. Kimpton Maa-Lai Bangkok, 2pm-9pm

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

Anastasia Maslova and Damian Black map the uneasy terrain of human attachment, tracing bonds that bruise even as they brighten. Their exhibition studies intimacy as structure: fragile, ferocious, occasionally splintered. Affection leaves marks, yet those same marks seed renewal. Visitors move through a multisensory setting where photographs hang beside paintings, sculptures share space with wearable pieces and interactive objects ask for touch rather than distance. Candles release a signature scent developed with Crystals and Herbs, adding another quiet layer to the experience. Nothing feels decorative; each work circles the paradox of connection, at once tender and unnerving, destructive and generative. You wander, pause, reconsider your own history of closeness, and perhaps recognise that vulnerability often carries its own strange beauty.   March 7-27. Free. Sathorn 11 Art Space, 5pm-2am

A cheerful pop-up from The Gallery Shop and Flashback marks the birth month of Vincent van Gogh, one of the most beloved figures of the Post‑Impressionism era. The event borrows familiar motifs from his paintings and translates them into objects you can actually hold, wear or take home. The idea celebrates the pleasure of making things rather than obsessing over perfect results. That message echoes Van Gogh’s own story: a life filled with struggle and little recognition while he lived, yet driven by relentless creativity that eventually reshaped modern art. Browse a pop-up shop filled with sunflower patterns and swirling colour references, step into a photobooth styled with painterly backdrops, then turn snapshots into playful keychains decorated with charms inspired by his most recognisable symbols. Until March 31. Free. The Gallery Shop, River City Bangkok, 10am-8pm

If you should find yourself feeling all jazzed out, head over to Soi 88 for a cold beer instead. Woodstock Bar is a watering hole where you can experience another pillar of Americana roots music, the blues. Nightly jam sessions riffing on the classic 12-bar template are led by bar-owner and local guitar hero Ped Bluesman, with his band, The Blues Cats.     Everynight. Free. Woodstock Bar, 4pm-midnight 

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