The Chiang Mai Performing Arts Festival is here! Here’s what to expect

While election weekend gets underway, many of us who can’t vote (or would rather not doom-scroll the results) may be wondering how exactly to fill the time. With bars and restaurants understandably dry for the duration, distraction becomes a little harder to come by – unless you’re willing to swap a drink in hand for something a bit more cerebrally enriching.

If that’s you, you’re in luck. Long a capital of creativity, Chiang Mai is turning to performance this weekend, as the Chiang Mai Performing Arts Festival (CMPAF) takes over theatres and public spaces across town – starting right now. 

From Friday to Saturday, CMPAF offers a timely reminder that entertainment doesn’t have to come with a bar tab (note to self), and instead, a lineup of contemporary performance rubs shoulders with tradition and international artists, sharing the floor with local creatives and audiences who know this city inside out.

Now in its 2026 edition, CMPAF has grown from a tight-knit artist-led initiative into one of Northern Thailand’s most exciting platforms for performance. A mini-Fringe Festival if you will, under the theme ‘Lives in Rhythm’. Here’s what to expect and where to find performances all weekend – our best solution to avoid the election chatter. Mostly.

What’s on at the Chiang Mai Performing Arts Festival this year?

Major shows will be hosted across the city, many with multiple performances to catch across the three days. Artists from across Asia and Europe have descended to the city, with performances that range from intimate solos to playful, high-energy ensemble pieces:

Luk Kreung by Phitthaya Phaefuang (Solo contemporary dance)

A solo creation (2022) from Thai-Norwegian dancer Phitthaya Phaefuang, alias Aurora Sun Labeija, based on his own identity complex and his mother's past as a sex worker. The performance presents a radiant host of gender performances and queer embodiments, including catwalk, sex sirens, vogueing, Thai classical female dance, dharma practice and walking meditation. 

Feb 5-6. Free. Suan Anya Northern People's History House. 5pm-6pm

Love Tenderly by Tony Tran (Solo contemporary dance)

Another solo performance, this time by Vietnamese-Norwegian choreographer and performer Tony Trinh Tran, dissecting his own life through perspectives projected onto his body. Growing up in Norway as a gay boy in a catholic family with Vietnamese heritage, his story is one like many – a constant balancing act between the ideal of a world in which identity no longer plays a role and the reality of constantly having to fit in somewhere. 

Feb 5-6. Free. Suan Anya Northern People's History House. 3pm-4pm

DREAMWORKS FACTORY by Étonnante Production (Text and movement performance)

Dreams have a price. They create value. They lead to growth. Étonnante fills a factory full of dreamers – labourers of dreams – who buy, sell, rent, pawn and transform dreams without limits. Told through movement, words, text and traditional Manora performances, dreams gain value only when the dreamers wake up. Until the workhouse bell rings once again…

Feb 5-6. Free. Suan Anya Northern People's History House. 1pm-2pm

THUNDERBUG! by GLOM GLOM

A curious collection of colourful characters – some familiar, some brand new – has landed from the Glom Glom galaxy, and they’re bringing the banana-coloured laughs with them. Thunderbug! is a high-energy, family-friendly comedy show that’s big on physical humour, visual storytelling and playful chaos, making it easy to enjoy for all types of audiences as EmC and her stupendous friends promise a ton of joyful nonsense. 

Feb 5-6. Free. Suan Anya Northern People's History House and Chiang Mai Railway Station Park. 5pm-6pm

Outdoor performances and workshops

CMPAF doesn’t believe theatre should stay indoors. Alongside the stage programme, there’s also a handful of public-space performances popping up where you least expect them – creating space for artists, students and curious audiences to connect and inviting passersby to stop, watch and maybe even take part. 

If you’re looking for big ideas without the big ego, Chiang Mai Performing Arts Festival is where you’ll want to turn your focus to this weekend. Come for the shows, stay for the conversations and, just maybe, leave with a slightly different rhythm of your own.

Find out all you need to know by visiting their socials here.