Maha Songkran Water Festival Celebrates Thailand's Cultural Soft Power

The Maha Songkran World Water Festival 2025 has officially opened at Sanam Luang Royal Park, inviting Thai and international visitors to join the New Year celebrations in a series of events lasting five days, until April 15, at the park area and neighboring Ratchadamnoen Klang Road.

According to a VNA correspondent in Bangkok, this year's Maha Songkran Festival is imbued with Thai culture with unique light and sound performances, cultural parades from five regions, vibrant water splashing areas and free concerts by leading Thai artists.

The highlight of the festival is 8 large parades with the theme “Thainess Iconic”, bringing together more than 500 performing artists to introduce Thailand's cultural identity as well as the soft power of culture.

Additionally, the event will feature parades showcasing Thai cuisine , elephants, fighting fish, tuk-tuks and regional dances, along with traditional art performances such as folk plays, Hoo-Loo musicals and Hun Lakorn Lek puppetry.

Next to it is the “Thai Charm” area with 5 activities that visitors are encouraged to experience, including cooking demonstrations and Thai food tasting; Muay Thai demonstrations; practicing Thai massage; shopping for iconic Thai products; and taking souvenir photos in Thai costumes with cultural landmarks of the Land of Golden Pagodas.

In addition, the festival also has fair games such as exploring the haunted house, outdoor cinema, Ferris wheel, water play area with musical fountain and more than 100 food and product stalls from all over the country.

In addition to the grand Maha Songkran 2025 festival held at Sanam Luang Park, people and tourists can enjoy the Songkran atmosphere at traditional locations for many years in the capital Bangkok such as Khao San Road, Silom Road, or at large shopping centers such as Icon Siam, Central World, Big C, King Power duty-free store...

Coming with her husband and children to enjoy Songkran at the newly opened One Bangkok multi-purpose complex in Bangkok, Ms. Guk shared: “Songkran always brings beautiful and warm memories, is a time for family and a good holiday for anyone who is working. For Thai people like me, this is truly a family festival. My family has a small child, so this year we brought him here to play water games and experience Songkran.”

Michael, a tourist from Uzbekistan, expressed his great impression of Thailand and its people. He said: “I am very happy to come here with my children. Thailand is wonderful, everyone is smiling and friendly. I am staying at One Bangkok and this is a great place to shop.”

This year's Songkran festival is expected to generate 26.5 billion baht (about 726 million USD) in revenue for the Thai economy, according to deputy government spokesman Sasikarn Wattanachan.

Of this, 7.32 billion baht is expected to come from foreign tourists and 19.24 billion baht from domestic tourists, up 7% and 9% respectively from last year, with more than 4.4 million domestic trips.

Citing data from leading Southeast Asian travel platform Traveloka, Ms Sasikarn said Bangkok continues to be the most popular destination in the region during Songkran. Secondary cities are also seeing rapid tourism growth, in line with the Thai government’s policy.

Specifically, travel searches for destinations such as Chumphon increased by 95%, Nakhon Phanom increased by 68%, Sakon Nakhon increased by 53%, Loei increased by 46% and Nan increased by 40%.

This shows that more and more people are interested in authentic local Songkran experiences that reflect the unique nature, culture and traditions of Thailand./.

(Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/le-hoi-nuoc-maha-songkran-ton-vinh-quyen-luc-mem-van-hoa-thai-lan-post1027507.vnp