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

The photographer Chaiyos Pinpradab returns with his first solo exhibition in 20 years, bringing together 114 handcrafted film photographs from a 150-day road trip through southern Thailand. Travelling from Pran Buri to Narathiwat between September 2024 and January 2025, he captured everyday life, distinctive architecture and quiet landscapes with remarkable patience. The series takes its cue from ‘Golden Chersonese’, an ancient name for the Malay Peninsula. Shot on a Hasselblad XPan panoramic film camera, each image rewards close inspection, while traditional darkroom printing preserves subtle shifts of light, texture and tone. The result celebrates the region without romanticising it. Now-August 9. Free entry. Fifth floor, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. 10am-8pm

Three decades after Detective Conan first arrives on television, the long-running mystery series gets its first Southeast Asian anniversary exhibition. The show traces the anime's history from early sketches and storyboards to voice recording, music and final animation, offering a closer look at the work behind one of Japan's biggest franchises. Highlights include life-sized recreations of memorable scenes, a storyboard wall spanning 30 years and a screening room showing an exclusive anniversary film. Pick up an assigned collectible ticket on arrival, then finish with a browse through exclusive merchandise made specially for the exhibition. July 23-November 8. B250-900 via here. FreeAttraction Hall, ICONSIAM. 10am-9pm

Japanese craftsmanship has long balanced painstaking technique with a playful streak, and The Superlative Artistry of Japan shows how little that has changed over the past 150 years. After touring internationally since 2017, the exhibition finally arrives in Thailand, bringing together Meiji-era masterpieces and contemporary design in one thoughtful survey. Rather than separating tradition from pop culture, the exhibition shows how the same careful approach continues to shape Japanese creativity across generations. July 25-August 23. Free entry. First floor, TCDC Bangkok. 10.30am-7pm

PUN returns to the stage with The Space Between Dream and Dawn – Comeback Show, his first live performance since completing his ordination. Picking up where MUSEUM OF SOMNIA – An Embodied Music Experience left off, the concert revisits the songs and stories that shaped the project while opening a new chapter. PUN oversees every detail, from the setlist and narrative to the staging, lending the evening a distinctly personal touch. Tickets are reserved for visitors who attended the MUSEUM OF SOMNIA exhibition with either a One-time Pass or Four-times Pass, making this a rare reunion with the fans who have followed the journey from the start. July 25-August 8. B299-1,299 via here. centralwOrld LIVE. 11am-10pm

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

Looking for an easy post-work wander?  Tay Level 10 returns to the rooftop of S-Oasis in Chatuchak, bringing more than 80 stalls to an open-air car park with sweeping city views and, this time, a roof in case the weather turns. The market has become a regular meeting point for the Mo Chit and Chatuchak crowd: browse vintage clothes, film cameras, handmade goods, plants and homeware, then settle in with street food and a cold drink. It’s a short walk from Mo Chit BTS and Chatuchak Park MRT, and a free shuttle makes the final stretch even easier. August 6-8. Free entry. S-Oasis. Midday-8pm

August brings a packed live-performance programme to Lumphini Hall, as the Bangkok Metropolitan Orchestra fills the calendar with symphony concerts, dance nights and stage shows. One highlight comes on August 8, when young guitarist Pornpawit ‘Peak Guitar’ Sriwarom takes centre stage for Peak Guitar X BMO, performing with the full orchestra under conductor Sorapot Worasaeng. Violinist Chonsorn Chantrapaoraya joins the line-up, with vocals from Pond Patthanan Ajon-ong, Fish Kritthath Phisutthiwong and Kongprab Panithan Juangkhrut. Set inside the park, the venue makes an easy early-evening stop after a walk around Lumphini, with the music starting as the city cools down. August 8. Free entry. Lumphini Hall. From 5pm

Fans counting down to Olivia Rodrigo’s next chapter can stop at Piccolo Vicolo, where all three branches are hosting an album-inspired pop-up until August 9. The Sam Yot café gets the full treatment with exclusive photo spots, while every location serves themed drinks named after tracks from you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. Expect the soundtrack throughout the day, handwritten fan messages across the walls and plenty of purple details. Order a featured drink, scan the in-store QR code and save the album on Spotify or Apple Music to receive one of five limited-edition button badges, while stocks last. Until August 9. Free entry. All three Piccolo Vicolo branches. 9am-5pm

An entire Akha house now stands in the middle of Bangkok, carefully dismantled from a village in northern Thailand and rebuilt piece by piece inside an art gallery. Roof panels, woven bedding, timber floors and weathered household objects all carry marks of the people who once lived among them, quietly tracing a way of life that grows more fragile with each passing generation. The Akha are an Indigenous ethnic group whose communities are spread across the mountains of northern Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and southern China, known for their intricate textiles, spiritual rituals and deep connection to land and ancestry. In recent decades, migration, tourism and rapid development have reshaped many of those traditions. Through memory, craftsmanship and personal histories, The Preservation of Fire by Busui Ajaw keeps those stories alive a little longer. May 15-November 1. Free entry. Bangkok Kunsthalle. 2pm-8pm

National Book Lovers Day gets a sociable twist at Books and Boo, an evening that swaps silent reading for drinks, conversation and a little literary matchmaking. Browse blind-date books wrapped to keep their titles secret, many drawn from short-story collections and romantasy favourites with a decidedly grown-up edge. Bring your partner, gather some friends or turn up solo, then settle in with a drink and compare recommendations with fellow readers. A photo corner adds to the fun, while the bar offers 10 percent off drinks and 20 percent off bottles of wine. Even if you leave without a new romance, you’ll probably go home with a good book. August 9. Free entry. 6TH.FL. 6pm-9pm