Kaweewat Siwanartwong

July has officially made its entrance – bringing the rain along with it. Still, between the downpours, there’s a gap – just wide enough to slip into something stranger, louder or quietly offbeat. This weekend, that sliver of calm is asking to be filled. If Jurassic World fever hasn’t overwhelmed you, Thainosaur brings prehistory to life with a distinctly Thai twist. Think giant creatures, dusted bones, and a museum-turned-portal to a forgotten Earth – ancient, alive and far closer than it should be.  Then there’s Bangkok Horror Film Festival, which starts not with a bang but a shiver. The country’s first of its kind, it trades cheap thrills for something slower, more persistent – outdoor screenings of Us, Smile, Shutter, Ouija and more, stitched together with haunted installations, twisted short films and real-life ghost stories told in too much detail.  For a gentler haunt, TRACE No.17 merges ink and memory in a flash day led by twelve tattoo artists. Under the theme ‘traces of memories’, designs blur into emotion, and skin becomes canvas for stories you didn’t realise you needed to tell. And at House Samyan, the Surprise Screening returns. The film? A secret. But if the clue is to be believed, expect something to spike your heart rate. Afterwards, there’s a reveal of the cinema’s upcoming classic line-up – a gesture to both the future and the familiar. So if the skies clear even briefly, step into something strange. Not everything this weekend makes sense – but maybe that’s

Pride month may have closed its curtains, but the city’s cultural pulse shows no sign of slowing. June left us full – of installations, declarations, all the shades that make identity less of a statement and more of a spectrum. But if you thought it ended there, think again. July arrives with a quiet sprawl of exhibitions that ask different questions: about memory, language, loss and the shape of play. Still running is Lost in DOMLAND, Udom Taephanich’s gentle rebellion against the slow disappearance of silliness. It's not comedy, not quite tragedy either – more like a stage whisper from your younger self, reminding you that make-believe was once second nature. That monsters made of cardboard were just as real as the ones we now carry in our heads. Another good one, the Yuyuan Lantern Festival casts Bangkok in a softer light – literally. A first for the city, this chapter of China’s legendary spectacle reimagines ancient creatures from the Shan Hai Jing, their stories pulsing through illuminated paper forms. It’s part folklore, part fever dream. And if you're looking to trade fantasy for abstraction, Calligraphic Abstraction at Bangkok Kunsthalle offers Tang Chang’s trembling lines that blur scripture and spirit, proof that sometimes meaning lives in the unreadable. Then there’s The Shattered World, part of the James H. W. Thompson Foundation’s 50th anniversary programme – an ambitious, multi-site excavation of the Cold War’s lingering ghosts, stretching across the BACC, Jim

July is here, month seven. Just enough past the halfway mark to wonder where the time went, or what exactly we’ve done with it. Did the resolutions stick? Did we drink more water? Read more books? Fall in love a little or at least return a text on time? No pressure. But if things haven’t gone quite to plan, there’s still time. This month, Bangkok feels unusually alive. Not in the loud, glittery sense, but in the quieter, stickier moments that stay with you. On the music front, it’s a trio of emotions: Henry Moodie, whose heartbreak-pop feels like pages torn straight from a diary; Fred Again.., master of nostalgia stitched into club beats; and HONNE, returning with warmth, synths and a mango sticky rice mascot that says more than it should. For more cultural reasons, art spills onto the streets and gallery walls. Thailand Printmaking Festival celebrates the messy, ink-stained joy of DIY expression, swapping polish for process. Bangkok Horror Film Festival asks you to sit in the dark with strangers and your worst fears, then stay for the haunted house and ghost stories from film crews who swear it really happened. At Eat Ramen Fest, you’ll find 16 stalls, four master chefs and a prize for those who can eat their way through five bowls (no judgement). Meanwhile, the Bank of Thailand Learning Centre offers a softer pace with a reading fest: a book fair where you can collect stamps, browse with intention and sit beside the river, ignoring your phone for once. So no, maybe the year

Like most people who tumbled into the glitter-slicked rabbit hole of drag, my gateway was RuPaul’s Drag Race. The show was camp, chaotic and, occasionally, cathartic – and while I adored the performances, what I craved was context. That’s when Yellow Channel found me. Somewhere between a critique and a love letter, the channel offered commentary that felt neither detached nor indulgent. It was opinion with eyeliner – sharp, unblinking and occasionally smudged. Now, I’m staring at the face behind it – Pat (Phatthara Lertsukittipongsa) – via video call, framed by a glittery backdrop that feels more like a curtain call than a coincidence. He’s not just the creator of Yellow Channel. He’s also the mind behind Thailand’s Drag Star, a platform that’s bringing together performers from every corner of the country. Not just the Bangkok icons, but the dreamers from Chantaburi, the showgirls from Nakhon Si Thammarat, the misfits from every corner of Google Maps. Over the course of our conversation, we talk drag as transformation, Bangkok’s unpredictable scene and what makes a truly fabulous night. I also find out what, in his opinion, makes Time Out the best recommendation in town – but that secret’s staying tucked away until the final paragraph. If you’re ready, wig first, read on. Photograph: Yellow Channel How Pat got pulled into drag (without even realising) ‘I used to think RuPaul in drag and RuPaul out of drag were two different people,’ Pat admits with a grin. ‘I didn’t get it

Bangkok’s dining scene never ceases to impress with new restaurants constantly adding fresh energy to the city’s vibrant food landscape. While elegant fine dining establishments often steal the spotlight with their refined menus and impeccable presentation, casual eateries play an equally important role in shaping the city’s culinary identity. From bustling street-side stalls to trendy bistros, these spots capture the capital’s lively spirit through bold flavours, creative concepts and inviting atmospheres. If you’re planning a romantic evening for two, a laid-back family dinner or even a solo food adventure, there’s no shortage of exciting options. The city’s diverse culinary landscape continues to expand, offering everything from Cantonese and French delicacies to comforting Burmese dishes. Whether you’re drawn to modern fusion cuisine or timeless classics, there’s always something new to discover. Discover, book, and save at hundreds of restaurants with Grab Dine Out. Enjoy exclusive discounts, use dining vouchers, and make instant reservations, all in the Grab app. Explore Grab Dine Out now.

From stomach-filling Western classics to quick Thai favourites, here’s our list of places you can fill up for the day.  RECOMMENDED: The best new restaurants that opened this year   Discover, book, and save at hundreds of restaurants with Grab Dine Out. Enjoy exclusive discounts, use dining vouchers, and make instant reservations, all in the Grab app. Explore Grab Dine Out now.

555. No, not the number – though it might as well be the punchline. It's how we laugh in Thai: ha ha ha. It’s also how Lounys, a French-Algerian artist now living in Bangkok, occasionally sneaks humour into his work – a wink to the absurd, a code-switch between languages, cultures and emotions. Born in Paris with Algerian and Berber roots, Lounys is what happens when you fold a handful of cities into one mind: New York, Los Angeles, Miami, a few stops across Europe and now Thailand. His art has appeared across Bangkok, cropping up in galleries and pop-up shows like visual outbursts – provocative, dense, unfiltered. Drawing on satirical cartoons and caricatures, Lounys sketches out modern survival as a warped spectacle. Political figures are stretched, social archetypes distorted, but always with a knowing eye. There’s something dreamlike in his method – automatic, compulsive, channelling the spirit of 1920s surrealism while humming with the colour-fuelled energy of pop art. Photograph: Lounys We asked him a few questions, naturally – about the move, the city, the sprawl of it all. He tells us he’s adapting to Bangkok, slowly. The food, the pace, the people. Bangkok: too hot to hold, too alive to ignore – just like his work.  Looking back, how would you describe the different chapters of your artistic journey so far? What felt like turning points along the way? ‘My journey’s been instinctive – no map, no mentor, just motion. One chapter was solitude, another dialogue. The sh

June arrives like a glitch in the system – a month stitched together by celebration and resistance, identity and exception. It’s the kind of moment where art feels less like decoration and more like a way of breathing.  In Bangkok, art isn’t confined to white cubes or gallery walls. It spills, glitches and stares back. The galleries don’t sleep. The warehouses flicker with light. You’ll find exhibitions in places that feel vaguely illegal and performances that seem like they’ve been dreamt up at 3am by someone who hasn't blinked in days. And maybe that’s enough: to witness, to feel, to not look away. Because art, like identity, was never meant to be tidy. Remember Lost in DOMLAND? That surrealist maze of desire and disorientation that made you feel like you'd stumbled into someone else's subconscious? Or A Cage of Fragile Heart, where tenderness became performance, and vulnerability was something to wear, not hide? That same raw energy pulses through this month’s line-up – less polished, more honest. And while Attack on Titan Final Exhibition gave us collapsing walls and the weight of legacy, and Hit the Road carved out moments of quiet rebellion, June doesn’t look back so much as it fragments forward. It isn’t neat. It doesn’t try to be. Instead, it offers a series of entry points – some loud, others almost imperceptible – into questions of selfhood, memory and what it means to be seen. There’s no single narrative, no tidy moral. Just flashes of truth, stitched together by a

Halfway through 2025 – blink and it’s June. Somehow, we’ve arrived at Pride Month, drenched in both colour and contradiction. It’s a time carved out for queerness, love-drenched, politicised and stubbornly joyful. But this isn’t a parade just for the queer community. It’s a mirror held up to everyone, reminding us that identity is messy, defiant and worth defending. Pride isn’t a party so much as a punctuation mark – a loud, necessary one. So, in a city that’s constantly shedding its skin, what does celebration look like? Bangkok, never one for subtlety, offers up a bit of everything. The Japanese invasion continues – animated and unapologetic – with Naruto The Gallery, Attack on Titan Final Exhibition and the overwhelmingly adorable 100% Doraemon and Friends Tour. Childhood nostalgia dressed as cultural diplomacy? We’re here for it. On the music front, things are getting beautifully chaotic. The Yussef Dayes Experience promises jazz with the edges left on, a kind of spiritual combustion wrapped in broken beats. Meanwhile, Kula Shaker returns, all psychedelic haze and East-meets-West mysticism. And then there’s MNDSGN, that cosmic soul wanderer, bringing his woozy grooves and unreleased material to a city that rarely pauses long enough to listen. He’s asking us to. Film lovers aren’t left out either. Lahn Mah (How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies) – arguably the most talked-about Thai feature in recent memory – gets its moment under the spotlight. It’s a family drama, yes

Some cities ease into you, like a slow morning. Bangkok doesn’t bother. It arrives all at once – humid, glaring, full of movement you can’t quite trace. Steam from a streetside grill blurs into the squeal of a tuk-tuk, incense curls past your ear, and a monk scrolls his phone with the indifference of someone who’s seen it all. The city doesn’t wait. It presses in from every side. Then, there’s Andrei Kostromskikh – better known on Instagram as Kosnio. His photographs seem less like compositions and more like accidents that knew exactly where to land. He walks the city with a camera and an eye for the nearly invisible – the things most people overlook, or choose not to see. His work doesn’t trade in landmarks or spectacle. His images aren’t postcards. They’re something quieter, more private. We find his work the way most people find anything these days – one of those algorithmic gifts the internet occasionally offers up. Naturally, we asked to share his photographs on our platform, and he generously agreed. Photograph: Kosnio When we reach out, he replies with the same understatement that marks his photos. Bangkok, he says, feels strangely familiar – not in any cosy or sentimental way, but like a half-remembered dream. Now, we asked him some questions about his journey and how he sees the capital. Photograph: Kosnio   Would you describe yourself as a visual storyteller rather than simply a photographer? ‘Yeah, I think so. I just try to catch moments that speak for themselv

June rolls in like a rush of neon, sequins and unapologetic joy – Pride is back, loud and proud. But this year carries a weight beyond the usual glitter and dancefloor confessions. Thailand marks its first legal recognition of same-sex marriage, a milestone decades in the making and a quiet revolution writ large across the city’s streets. Over 200,000 people will flood Bangkok, a tidal wave of colour and defiance, each step a statement, each flag a banner of hard-won freedom. The parade isn’t just a party – it’s a procession of resilience, love and history colliding in the most spectacular way. Photograph: Bangkok Pride From the wildest drag to the quietest moments of solidarity, this celebration stretches beyond surface-level exuberance. It’s the culmination of years spent fighting for recognition, for rights, for a space to simply exist without compromise. Bangkok’s roads become a runway of belonging, a stage for every story, every identity, every fierce truth. More than just a date on the calendar, this Pride is a declaration that love – unfiltered, untamed, in all its forms – finally has a home here. While the Bangkok Pride parade remains the highlight, the city hums with other LGBTQ+ events both before and after, making sure the celebration stretches well beyond a single day. So read on – there’s much more to discover. Photograph: Bangkok Pride When is Bangkok Pride? On Sunday June 1, Bangkok’s Pride parade returns to Rama I Road, transforming the city’s commercial s

Bangkok may be a whirlwind of energy, but it’s also home to some of the world’s most transformative spas. If the chaos of the city has you feeling frazzled, consider this your invitation to unwind in style. From traditional Thai massages to signature treatments that pamper you from head to toe, these serene sanctuaries know exactly how to melt away stress and leave you feeling like a brand-new version of yourself.

House Samyan turns 21 – old enough to know better, young enough to still keep secrets. To mark the occasion, the Surprise Screening returns, cloaked in clues and adrenaline. No title, no spoilers, just the promise of something fast, tense and possibly a little unhinged. The kind of film where you grip the seat and forget to blink. But the real twist comes after the credits roll – a first look at the cinema’s upcoming roster of classics set to unspool through the rest of 2025. For those holding a Grey Card or past three paper tickets from any screenings this year, the first 80 seats are yours for free. A nod to memory, loyalty and the quiet thrill of not knowing what comes next – until the lights go down. July 6. B160 via here. House Samyan, 4.15pm onwards

No urgency, no schedule – just moon milk, movement and the kind of silence that says more than words. This workshop isn’t about becoming your best self or fixing what’s broken. It’s gentler than that. A space to feel your way back into your body, to trace the outlines of a dream you almost forgot. Through slow ritual and soft rhythm, it invites a kind of remembering – not of facts or names, but of the parts of you that rarely speak up. Here, manifestation isn’t loud or showy. It’s felt in small shifts, in breath, in stillness. The sacred, it turns out, is quieter than we thought. July 6. B2,200. Reserve via Instagram @pinky_pyn.official_ and @altheawaken. Slowcombo, 4pm-6.30pm

Huerta arrives in Bangkok not with fanfare but with the kind of quiet assurance that fills a room before the first beat drops. A Berlin export with a penchant for swung-out house and hazy edits, he’s the sort of producer who doesn’t just play a set – he builds a world. Beamcube hosts the night, in collaboration with Bassis, the grassroots platform gently reshaping Asia’s electronic underground. His work, scattered across Slow Life and SlapFunk, leans into warmth, depth and just enough disorientation to keep you hooked. On the local end, Praw brings genre-blurring ease while Lsyndrome keeps the pulse steady. It’s not about the drop or the peak – it’s everything in between that leaves a mark. July 5. B400 via here and B600 at the door. Beamcube, 9pm onwards  

A day where ink meets sound, and memories take shape on skin. This event threads tattooing and music together under the theme ‘traces of memories’, inviting a quiet reckoning with the past. 12 tattoo artists, each with a voice of their own, offer flash tattoos that aren’t just designs but fragments of emotion – etched gently, meant to linger. It’s a space to revisit moments, to carry them forward in permanent whispers. Over the needles, five creative workshops open doors to new ways of expressing what’s lived and felt, blurring the line between memory and art. Here, the personal becomes collective, a shared journey painted in ink and sound, fleeting yet unforgettable. July 5. Register via here. When Life Gives You Lemons, 10am-6pm

This exhibition unfolds around the simple phrase ‘side by side’ – a meditation on the selves we are and the ones we might have been. At its heart is Mr. Halfman, a storyteller from a parallel universe, weaving tales where opposites don’t clash but converse, where different choices exist in harmony. It’s less about regret and more about curiosity – an invitation to wander these twin worlds, to embrace moments of joy, calm and connection. In this space between what is and what could have been, we find room to breathe, to love and to live entirely on our own terms. July 5-27. Free. GalileOasis Gallery, 10am-7pm

Pull Up! returns, this time with DJ Ennio and Hi(hg)hat at the helm, steering the night into deep territories of drum and bass and techno. It’s a gathering that feels less like a party and more like a shared ritual – where beats ripple through the air and time dissolves into rhythm. Ennio’s precision meets Hi(hg)hat’s raw energy, creating a soundscape that pulses with urgency and subtlety in equal measure. For those who live for the moments when the music takes over, this is more than a set – it’s an invitation to lose yourself in the labyrinth of sound and emerge somewhere new, somewhere electric. July 4. B200 at the door. Blaq Lyte Rover, 9pm onwards

Robin Ordell is a name that quietly commands respect across Europe’s underground scene. A fixture at Berlin’s Club der Visionaere, Hoppetosse and The Pickle Factory, he’s the founder of No Time County and a long-time Half Baked resident – rarely spotted this far afield. His sets unfold like a journey through jazz, funk and minimal, weaving soulful rhythms with a pulse that never lets up. For those who’ve danced through his nights, there’s a knowing warmth, a shared secret in the grooves. If you haven’t yet, this feels like the perfect moment to begin – an invitation to dive deep into a world where music shapes the night and every beat tells a story. July 4. B500 via here and B700 at the door. Beamcube, 9pm onwards

There’s a curious magic in stepping back millions of years – a chance to wander a world before ours, where giant creatures roamed freely. This event offers just that: an immersive trek alongside Thai dinosaurs and prehistoric beasts, as if the clock has unwound to a forgotten era. Each step pulls you deeper into a landscape shaped by colossal terrestrial rulers, their shadows still lingering in the imagination. It’s less a simple exhibition and more a portal to ancient earth, where awe and curiosity collide. For anyone who’s ever been fascinated by the primeval, this is an invitation to experience wonder unfiltered – a rare glimpse of a world lost but never forgotten. July 1-November 2. B150-350 at the door. Museum Pier, 10am-6pm

Moving together with strangers holds a special kind of joy. Especially when it’s swing – all hips, heels and not taking yourself too seriously. In collaboration with Jelly Roll Jazz Club, a collective that’s been spinning and stepping their way across Thailand for years, this evening offers a little lightness in motion. The night begins gently, with a beginner-friendly dance class at 8pm, where no one cares if you get it wrong so long as you keep going. By 8.30pm, a live jazz band takes over, and the room starts to hum – with brass, rhythm and the thrill of a beat you’re suddenly keeping up with. It’s not about technique, really. It’s about remembering what it feels like to enjoy the moment out loud. July 3. B600 via here and B800 at the door. Clutch BKK, The Warehouse Talad Noi, 8.30pm-11.30pm

50 years on, the James H. W. Thompson Foundation isn’t celebrating so much as excavating. In a region where war never fully ends – just recedes, reshapes – this exhibition gathers 13 international artist collectives to unpick the Cold War’s quieter aftermath. Spread across four venues – the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, William Warren Library, Jim Thompson House Museum and Jim Thompson Art Centre. Not the chest-thumping headlines, but what lingered: the unease, the absences, the memories that don’t quite sit still. Here, history isn’t recited but felt. Each work unearths personal, often peripheral stories that slip through the cracks of official accounts. The result is a constellation of perspectives – messy, emotional, unresolved. Across painting, video and installation, the pieces gesture towards grief, survival and the strange elasticity of memory. A reminder that what we inherit isn’t just fact, but feeling. And sometimes, fiction is closer to the truth. Until July 6. Free. Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, William Warren Library, Jim Thompson House Museum and Jim Thompson Art Centre.

There are artists who write, and then there’s Tang Chang – Bangkok-born, Sino-Thai, who dissolved the boundary altogether. For Chang, language wasn’t a tool so much as a presence, flickering somewhere between gesture and breath. At Calligraphic Abstraction, now at Bangkok Kunsthalle, his paintings refuse to be pinned down. Made between 1971 and 1972 – two blisteringly productive years – the works occupy a space where script becomes spirit, and symbols resist being named. Characters hover on the brink of recognition, echoing Chinese forms but never settling into clarity. Others mimic the cadence of poetry, stripped of words but still pulsing with rhythm. There’s a sort of devotion in it – though not to meaning. The line itself becomes the prayer, trembling between what can be read and what can only be felt. Until July 13. Free. Bangkok Kunsthalle, 6pm-8pm

Tomoaki Murayama doesn’t draw animals, he conjures them. In his first solo exhibition in Thailand, the Japanese artist offers a quiet kind of magic – dense, monochrome worlds where owls share space with octopuses, where roots tangle with antlers, and where the line between things blurs into something softer. Born in Kyoto, Murayama takes the forest not just as subject but as philosophy: an ecosystem without borders, where everything touches everything else, eventually. His drawings – intricate to the point of near obsession – reward slowness. What first appears decorative reveals layers, like moss on bark or veins in a leaf. The sculptures feel like those same lines, suddenly upright and breathing. Even the gallery space resists separation. Creatures perch near eye level, tucked into corners, watching. It’s not just an exhibition. It’s a quiet argument against division. Until July 18. Free. Art Focus Bangkok, Rivercity Bangkok, 10am-8pm

When Thailand decriminalised cannabis in 2022, it wasn’t just legislation that shifted – it was the entire mood. Overnight, the country known for some of the world’s most punitive drug laws became Asia’s green frontier. Khao San Road turned into a sort of tropical Amsterdam, only stickier. Shopfronts hawked pre-rolls beside pad Thai stalls. Dispensaries popped up like convenience stores, each promising ‘wellness’ with a wink. But the regular high didn’t last. This year, just three years after the grand opening, the shutters are being pulled back down – slowly, bureaucratically, but unmistakably. The Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine now insists dispensaries must transition into medical clinics. A doctor on-site, a clinic licence, prescription slips. Paperwork over pleasure. The message is clear: fun time’s over. The irony, of course, is that many of these shops had licences. Around 18,000, in fact. But of those, only a fraction qualify as actual medical facilities. Come November, roughly 12,000 will be up for renewal – and unless they conform to the new rules, they’ll go the way of the hookah bars before them. Another boom gone bust. The government says it’s a necessary correction. There are concerns, after all. Kids getting high. Tourists lighting up on beaches like it’s a full moon party every night. A whiff of moral panic, served with a side of public health anxiety. The kind of thing that gets talked about at dinner tables and school meetings. But th

Coffee in Bangkok has come a long way from the days of powdered sachets and lukewarm cafe lattes. These days, it comes with milk alternatives, custom extraction times and, occasionally, music. The city's obsession with coffee has taken on a life of its own – there’s the Sawasdee Cup Coffee Party (or ‘coffee rave’, if you're being cheeky), where beats meet beans, and espresso is served with a side of bass.  The city’s obsession has crept into every available nook – down alleyways, inside shopping centres, tucked behind plant shops and vintage racks. You’ll find pour-overs served with tasting notes more detailed than a wine list, and baristas who talk about terroir with the conviction of sommeliers. There’s a sense that coffee has moved past the morning ritual into something else entirely. And if you thought the caffeine curve had peaked, think again. Photograph: sawasdeecup.coffeeparty Photograph: sawasdeecup.coffeeparty Thailand Coffee Fest, now in its tenth year, returns this July 10-13 from 10am-8pm at Impact Exhibition Centre, Halls 5-8. But it’s also something more committed – an evolving record of the Thai coffee industry’s growing consciousness. Organised by the Specialty Coffee Association of Thailand (SCATH), this year’s instalment promises both foam art and future thinking, drawing together everyone from the farmers in Chiang Mai to the baristas fuelling Thonglor’s weekdays.  The theme, ‘Drink Better Coffee’, sounds deceptively simple. The cup in your hand could

Now entering its 27th year, the Bangkok International Festival of Dance and Music has outlasted countless club nights, fleeting gallery openings, and the tenures of 11 prime ministers.. It returns once again this year, quietly assured in its role as the capital’s most sweeping celebration of live performance. Held from September 6-October 15, the festival draws together an eclectic yet considered roster of global acts – 14 productions over six weeks, in styles that stretch from Cuban contemporary to Russian opera – it’s the cultural marathon. Photograph: bangkokfestivals Photograph: bangkokfestivals And while the festival itself never loudly insists on its prestige, the line-up doesn’t have to. Among this year’s headliners is the China National Acrobatic Troupe, a gravity-defying collective that has amassed more than 70 gold medals since its founding in the mid-20th century. Nicknamed China’s ‘dream team,’ they’ll be somersaulting into the Thailand Cultural Centre mid-September for the kind of act that will probably cause a few jaws to dislocate. Here’s what’s on: Wednesday September 6: Mahabharata: '18 days, Dusk of an Era' by Prabhat Arts International Saturday September 13-Sunday September 14: China National Acrobatic Troupe Tuesday September 16: Cuba Vibra by Lizt Alfonso Dance Cuba Friday September 20: A Dream of Red Mansions by National Ballet of China Tuesday September 23: Placido Domingo Thursday September 25: NOCTURNA by Rafaela Carrasco Flamenco Ballet Friday S

If you’ve ever felt like love was something best remembered through a dusty lens, or if heartbreak should come with its own backing track of vintage synths and whispered samples, then chances are you’ve already been in a quiet entanglement with TV Girl. Formed by Brad Petering, Jason Wyman and Wyatt Harmon, the band operates less like a traditional trio and more like a ghost story set to music – lingering, looping, unshakeable. Their early release Lonely Women arrived as a kind of lo-fi time capsule: hip-hop rhythms colliding with ‘60s girl-group melancholy, dipped in irony and reverb. It spread online like lipstick on a cigarette filter – smudged, romantic, oddly familiar. Since then, TV Girl hasn’t exactly grown up, but rather grown stranger. Their most recent offering, ‘Grapes Upon the Vine’, trades old vinyl crackle for gospel overtones, as Petering muses on death, devotion and the awkward business of being alive. The album is both a sermon and a shrug, and it’s earned them not just cult status, but 2.2 million Instagram disciples. And now, they’re coming. If you're the kind to romanticise minor inconveniences or cry to lyrics that barely raise their voice, consider this your reminder. When are TV Girl playing Samyan Mitrtown Hall? TV Girl will take the stage for a one-night-only performance on Monday December 1. What are the timings? Doors at Samyan Mitrtown Hall will open at 8pm, with the performance set to begin around 8.30pm and wrap up by 10.30pm. Setlist According t

Probably not a stadium, not the kind where sweaty jerseys, screeching trainers and national anthems usually fill the air. But that’s exactly where Read Fest lands this year – from July 3-7, 10am-8pm at Nimibutr Stadium, National Stadium right next to the National Stadium BTS. It’s a book fair, yes, but not as you’ve known it. No hushed halls or fluorescent strip lights. Instead: bleachers, wide open floors and the sound of live music bouncing off rafters once reserved for volleyballs and victory chants. Entry is free, but it’s your brain that’s really getting a ticket to run wild. It’s hosted by TK Park with the Department of Physical Education – a pairing that, on paper, reads more like an administrative accident than a collaboration, but it works. Here, minds are stretched as much as muscles. No stiff rows of long tables or hushed aisles. Instead, an open, welcoming sprawl that swaps silence for sound, and stillness for movement.  Forget the air-conditioned monotony of a typical convention centre. This is bookishness with a pulse. Under the theme ‘exercise ideas’ (or ‘brain workout,’ depending who you ask), Read Fest suggests that intellectual curiosity might, in fact, be a full-body sport. And like any workout, there are stations: some gentle, some chaotic, all surprisingly fun. Now, let’s see what to expect at the festival. Book market – curated books from leading publishersThe usual suspects are here, but they’re laid out with enough breathing space to actually browse w

Welcome to Bangkok’s dark side – it’s louder, livelier, and far less subtle than you think. The traffic screams, the pavements mutter, and the skies above the Chao Phraya have long learned to stay out of the drama. But even this city, in all its maximalist glory, has found a way to get darker. This is the Bangkok Horror Film Festival – a three-day plunge into the beautifully grotesque, staged at the suitably eerie Maen Sri Waterworks building. Supported by the Department of Cultural Promotion, the Ministry of Culture and the Thailand Creative Culture Agency (THACCA), the festival runs from July 4-6. Entry’s free. The fear, less so. No one’s here for faint-hearted metaphors or ironic nods to the genre. This is horror stripped of postmodern winks – a celebration of things that go bump, rattle and occasionally howl in the night. Beyond the moonlit screenings that repeatedly test your bladder, anticipate a haunted house exhibition that crawls out of the screen and into your peripheral vision, plus hair-raising stories from crews who’ve seen more on set than made it to the final cut. There’s even a short film competition, and the chance to meet the ones behind the camera – not to break the fourth wall, but to peer behind it. To steady your nerves (or worsen them), there’ll be food stalls, live bands and activities that flirt with the line between funfair and fever dream. Outdoor horror screenings:   Ouija   Terror awaits five friends who unwittingly awaken a dark power by using

Bangkok doesn’t do quiet, it hums, honks, pulses. Even its silences come laced with static. Which is why the BOTLC Book Fair feels almost suspiciously serene. From July 16-20 at 10am-6.30pm, the Bank of Thailand Learning Centre – all clean lines and soft light – becomes a kind of sanctuary for the overstimulated. Tucked beside the Chao Phraya, it offers not just books but the rarest thing of all: a pause. This isn’t your average fairground frenzy. No jostling, no soundtrack engineered to keep you moving. Instead, it’s slow: a page turned, a thought held, a breeze that actually matters. You can wander through tables of titles without pressure, eavesdrop on a panel, then drift outside to sit with something dog-eared and deeply yours. There’ll be workshops, music, food if you need it – but the real draw is the rhythm, unhurried, unbothered. Because yes, you’ll find books – but you’ll also find space – space to browse, to breathe,  to sit with a novel by the water and forget your phone exists. Here’s how it unfolds Book fair – Not just a shopping spree. It’s a curated sprawl of publishers, obscure titles, and enough paperbacks to make your tote bag ache in the best way. Book talk – Authors step into the spotlight, joined by influencers who know their Baldwin from their Barthes. Book walk – A wander through the Bank of Thailand Museum’s collection of currency, stitched with stories more telling than any economics textbook. Book sharing – Bring a book, take a book, leave a piece o

Printmaking used to be the sort of thing your art teacher loved, or that one cousin who still uses an iPod and can’t shut up about ‘zines’. But this year’s Thailand Printmaking Festival isn’t just for the print-obsessed. It’s for anyone who’s ever paused to admire a sticker on a lamp post or traced the grain of a paperback cover. Print is, quite literally, ‘everywhere’ – and that’s precisely the point. Running July 4-15, from 4pm-10pm daily at Central Chidlom’s Event Hall, the festival returns under the quietly radical theme: ‘Printing is everywhere.’ The premise is simple – print doesn’t belong on a pedestal. It lives in our wardrobes, bookshelves, shopping bags, tote bags, Instagram feeds and street corners. It’s daily, it’s democratic and it’s deliciously DIY. Organised by GroundControl and PPP Studio, this year’s edition pulls Bangkok into the fold after its last showing in Chiang Mai’s Dream Graff Gallery (2022). With a broader scope and louder presence, the 2025 festival aims not just to show but to ‘share’ – a communal invitation to press, smudge and roll ink across our daily lives.  What’s new to look forward to this year? In addition to a wide range of artworks – from statement pieces to pocket-sized prints – the festival presents a special exhibition uniting 10 artists with 10 distinctive print studios. Each duo brings a unique method to the mix. Weekend workshops will also be held throughout, inviting visitors to create their own prints with ease. More than just a

Many will recognise ‘Let Her Go’ – a track that leans on simple yet striking images like light, sun and home to capture the emptiness that lingers when something essential disappears after love fades. It started, as these things often do, by accident. I was at a game cafe in 2012 – one of those dim, blinking places where time collapses and teenagers subsist entirely on instant noodles and borrowed Wi-Fi – when ‘Let Her Go’ floated through my headphones, uninvited. I wasn’t looking for poetry. I was probably mid-click, halfway through some medieval siege. But then came the line: ‘Only know you love her when you let her go.’ It landed with the quiet cruelty of something far too true for a Tuesday afternoon. It’s 2025, and Michael David Rosenberg – though most will know him as Passenger – a British folk singer with the kind of weathered sincerity that tends to sneak up on you – is finally playing a show in Thailand. A little late, perhaps, considering his biggest song has been echoing through bedrooms, cafes and breakup playlists for well over a decade. Still, there’s something fitting about it. His music has always been less about arrival and more about the long road getting there. By the time ‘Let Her Go’ became a global phenomenon, topping charts across continents and amassing billions of views, the moment had already passed. The track had quietly entered the bloodstream of a generation not especially prone to feeling things out loud. If ‘Let Her Go’  ever held a place in you

There’s a particular type of person who treats second-hand markets like others treat religion. They speak of provenance the way art dealers do, they’ve learnt the precise weight of a Levi’s Type III from 1971, and they can spot real suede from a metre away. These are not casual shoppers. These are pilgrims. And for three days, June 27-29 at 3pm-midnight, they’ll be heading to PAPAYA Studio, where the BANAKE x Michelui Flea Market promises to scratch every last vintage itch. Set between towering sculptures and retro filing cabinets, the event is less car boot sale, more parallel universe. The kind where a Brutalist ashtray might sit beside a pristine Comme des Garcons jacket, and no one bats an eyelid. Curated by Michelui – the elusive vintage whisperer whose Instagram feels more like a time capsule than a feed – the market spans everything from peculiar homeware and rare books to mid-century furniture and fashion that remembers better days. But it isn’t just about rummaging. This year, the soundtrack matters too. Yokee Playboy crooning as you debate between a crushed velvet armchair or an embroidered waistcoat. Slur, Greasy Cafe, Penguin Villa and H3F are all set to perform, along with a host of others whose names sound like they’ve been scribbled on a cassette tape from 2002. DJs will carry the evening into something looser, cooler, half-danced, half-dreamed. Food and drinks will flow, of course – this is still Bangkok. Expect the heat, the buzz, the slight delirium of barga

HONNE’s music has always lived somewhere between a late-night phone call and the tail end of a long drive – comforting, a bit bittersweet, slightly blurred at the edges. On July 27 the British electro-soul duo – best known for hits like ‘Day 1,’ ‘Location Unknown’ and ‘No Song Without You’ – return to Bangkok, a city they’ve long held a quiet affection for, as part of The OUCH Tour. The venue is True Icon Hall, a cavernous space tucked inside Iconsiam’s polished seventh floor. Their return isn't without drama. The initial flicker of excitement arrived not from a press release or even a teaser video, but from a poster – illustrated in syrupy pastel tones, featuring their OUCH Boy mascot cradling a plate of mango sticky rice. A love letter in carbohydrates, if you will. It’s absurd, and kind of moving. This time around, HONNE won’t be alone on stage. BOWKYLION, Thailand’s melancholic pop heroine, joins them for the night – her voice the sonic equivalent of a cracked mirror or a sigh you didn’t mean to let slip. Now, if their tracks already live among your favourites or you’re simply curious, take this as your signal to save the date – here’s what to keep in mind before the evening begins.  When are HONNE playing at Bangkok’s True Icon Hall? HONNE are playing in Bangkok on Sunday, July 27.    What are the timings? Doors to the venue will open at 7pm. The show is set to start around 8pm and wrap up around 10.30pm.    What’s the setlist? There is no official setlist, so all will b

Every summer solstice, France does something utterly un-French: it drops its cool, steps into the street and makes noise. Fête de la Musique – or World Music Day, if you prefer things literal – is an annual invitation to play, sing, stumble through a half-forgotten guitar riff and call it culture. It began in 1982, when someone at the French Ministry of Culture decided that the longest day of the year should sound like it too. Since then, it has ballooned into a global phenomenon, travelling across time zones and borders, settling into over 120 countries with the quiet insistence of a chorus line. In Thailand, a place where volume is rarely an issue, the festival will hit Bangkok this June 14 with Bangkok World Music Day ‘25 – held at One Bangkok a world-class lifestyle destination in the heart of Bangkok’ at the intersection of Rama IV Road and Wireless Road, where shopping, business – and now, apparently music and culture– collide. The fun also stretches to Alliance Française Bangkok The festival goes across the venues, each tuned to a different frequency and offering something for every kind of listener. Of course – it’s entirely free.  And for those in the mood to take home a souvenir, check out the flea market packed with quirky, fun finds.   Here are the highlights from each stage / zone :  One Bangkok Park presents Thai and international artists across various music genres: - Réjizz (17.15 – 17.45 hrs.) - Venn (18.15 – 18.45 hrs.) - KIKI (19.15 – 19.45 hrs.) - Paradis