Hong Kong’s party district Lan Kwai Fong will be transformed into Thailand as part of the city’s first Thai Select Carnival on April 22. The event, which will showcase Thai culture and cuisine, is free for all to enter.
The street festival will begin at 12pm and continue through the evening. Visitors can watch Muay Thai demonstrations, dance performances, a Thai dress contest, and live music shows as part of the event.
Thai Select Carnival — which is being organised by the Lan Kwai Fong Association and the Thai Ministry of Commerce — will bring together over 30 curated F&B, health and wellness, and travel brands from Thailand in Hong Kong. There will also be a lucky draw in which participants can get the chance to win a luxury hotel stay in Phuket.
The carnival is being held around the time of Songkran, or Thai New Year, which is from April 13-15 this year. The highlight of the event will be the water-blessing ceremony, an ancient Songkran tradition that brings good luck and fortune to everyone around.
Other Thai New Year events happening in the city this month include the Happy Songkran Festival in Kowloon City on April 9, and SongKran HK 2023 at Lai Chi Kok from April 5-10. Some of the biggest attractions of these festivals are water-splashing activities and food stalls.
It is the first time in three years that the festival is being celebrated in Hong Kong, thanks to the cancellation of all Covid-related restrictions in the city that impacted large-scale events, such as group-gathering limits and the mask-wearing mandate.
There are also no restrictions on travel to Hong Kong as authorities began scrapping them from the end of 2022, starting with the mandatory hotel quarantine requirement in September, followed by the five-day isolation period for Covid-positive patients earlier this year. In addition, there are no more vaccination or testing requirements for inbound passengers.
Header image credits: Lan Kwai Fong Association
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