Chiangmai Flower Festival

Once again, the Chiangmai Flower Festival has come and gone. During the first weekend of February each year, Chiangmai comes alive with the sounds and sights of the Chiangmai Flower Festival. For three days, it seems that every flowering plant within transportation distance of the city ends up on display somewhere. It also draws tourists from every corner of the globe, so if you don’t like crowds, that is not the weekend to visit. During those three days, the city seems to absorb an outrageous number of people until it is literally at its breaking point!

Dozens of vendor displays pop up in and around the park known as Suan Buak Hat, which is located inside the southwestern corner of the walled city. It is soon easy to see why the province of Chiangmai lives up to its name of “the Rose of the North” as you wander throughout the displays of beautiful and exotic flowers, which are in full bloom towards the end of the cool season in early February. Along with the garden displays, there are also copious food booths selling homemade treats to get you through the day with barely a dent in your wallet or purse. During the evenings, crowds gather at Thapae Gate for speeches and entertainment by local musicians and dancers.

The highlight of the weekend is the Flower Festival Parade. It is a wild and crazy time that seems to go on forever. Let’s just say we watched the parade for a couple of hours before finally entering a streetside restaurant for a leisurely dinner. Later we exited to the ongoing parade and soon left with the thing still going strong!  I think if we had returned the following morning we could have caught the tail end of it!

The parade always starts out quite civil and organized. There is a route that it follows but unlike other parades I have been to, there are no barriers. Within a very short time, the crowds soon press there way into the “route” and begin to obstruct the floats and marchers. Soon, the whole length of the parade is swallowed by the thousands of people watching and almost grinds its way to a halt. Tourists are posing with the parade participants for photographs, crowding in front of floats for the ultimate holiday photo and doing just about everything else except actually climbing on the floats themselves. Within a couple of hours it is a total zoo!

But according to an older woman standing beside us, it is the same every year. It really is unbelievable and a miracle that people are not run over by the floats. The only way they can move is to literally drive through the crowd of idiots who are pressed up against them.  It would be like taking the famous Rose Bowl Parade and plunking it down into a crowd of several thousand people and then letting them find their way through the crowd to the other side, while trying to maintain some semblance of order. You can certainly try your best to get a good seat to watch from!  But wherever you end up, standing or sitting, somebody will eventually stand in front of you, even if it means brushing up against the floats to get that special close-up picture.

However, having said all that, it really is something to see. But don’t approach the parade like any normal parade in your home country. Think of it as a party where everyone can be involved with what is moving along the street! If you don’t mind being in a pack of several thousand people, and are relaxed enough to be pushed and shoved around a bit, you will have a great time!  You will also need to work on “holding your ground” as you are watching. Doing this in a polite, diplomatic way is not always easy.

The Chiangmai Flower Festival is always held during the first week of February. Be sure to check and recheck the dates before you plan any trips during that time. Some people this year thought that it was the beginning of the first week but it ended up being at the end.  The procession always starts from Nawarat Bridge and goes along Thapae Road, Kotchasarn Road and Changlor Road, before turning into Arak Road and concluding at Suan Buak Hat.