FREE Entrance to 1000 Smiles Thai Festival, the Songkran Festival in Manila 2016, Apr 15 - 17 in Bonifacio High Street

I am off to Thailand by August! As early as now, I have been reading blogs about this country. To tell you the truth, my online work right now has something to do with travelling to Thailand so this place is so dear to me. Last year, I and my brother did some fun stuff regarding Discover Thainess from making our own Thai fingernails out of cigarette foil paper, to making our Thai flower garland and cooking Pad Thai! So imagine the excitement  when I learned about the 1000 Smiles Thai Festival, the local version of celebrating the Songkran Festival in Manila, I said we need to come and see this. I quickly sent a Facebook message at the official FB Fan page of Tourism Authority of Thailand - Philippines to see if I can join the launching day then got a quick reply. They even sent via post mail the official invitation! I am so looking forward to join this. My brother is really excited,he is coming all the way from Laguna to join the festival.

I hope you guys can come too. Here is the official press release of this event.

An Amazing cool time at the 1000 Smiles Thai Festival For 2015, Thailand welcomed 300,000 visitors from the Philippines. In a bid to engage more  visitors to visit Thailand, a new initiative is set to start off with a campaign in May 2016 that aims at attracting travelers from around the world to explore the everyday charms of Thailand and its people. It is the kingdom’s unique blend of culture, traditions and festivals that epitomise “Thainess” and make the country stand out as offering unique experiences to all visitors.To showcase Thainess to the people of Philippines, Tourism Authority of Thailand is celebrating the Songkran festival at Bonifacio High Street Activity Center from 15 to 17 April. This festival aims to showcase how Thais celebrate Songkran festival and to promote unique Thai culture. In addition, the fair aims to promote unique destinations for visitors to visit on their next holiday to Thailand. 

Songkran festival represents the traditional Thai New Year and is one of the biggest celebrations in Thailand. Celebrated during the hottest time of the year, the youth playfully splash water on one another to share the feeling of coolness and beat the heat. This act of splashing is symbolic of showering blessings to one another. Thai families will also gather to perform a respectful rite where the young prepare flower garlands and washes the hands of their elders with scented water to wish then a long and healthy life. 

Visitors coming to the 1000 Smiles Thai Festival can get to explore over 10 demonstration counters specially brought in by Thai artisans. Besides showcasing Thai handicraft and traditional Thai food, there are also many exclusive tour and travel packages available from the participating tour agents and airlines. In addition, there will be Thai restaurants which will be selling lots of delicious Thai food. While watching the performances, you can also snack on some tamarind candy or rice crackers. Thai unique handicraft demonstration such as Khon Mask painting, Benjarong painting, Thai umbrella painting, palm leaves weaving, flower making and aroma packing demonstration will be featured. Visitors can also try their hand in making these delicate hand crafted products and experience the skills needed to make these items through the guidance of our artisans specially flown in from Thailand.

For the foodies, there are equally lots of food demonstration from Thai cooking demonstration that will guide you to cook simple Thai dishes and sharing tips how you can cook at home. There are also Thai hand crafted sweets making called “Namtan Pan” which comes in a variety of shapes and colours that is commonly found in Thai temple fairs. Another popular snack originating from Ayutthaya is Thai Roti Sai Mai (Thai sweet crepe), a Thai style candy floss (sai mai) snack made from spun sugar in rainbow colors and is wrapped with a freshly made spring roll skin (roti). Let’s not forget about the delicious Thai food that will be served at 2 selected Thai restaurants Benjarong and Mango Tree. They will be serving out their popular Thai dishes to satisfy your Thai food cravings. To chill out in the hot weather, there will also be ice cold Chang beer and ice Thai milk tea and coffee from Amazon.

With so many things to experience, visitors will also be entertained with light and fun Thai performances from the Thailand Got Talent performance group “Petjaratsang”. They will be performing special performances to celebrate the Songkran Festival. Catch live Muay Thai demonstration and performance on stage daily. Visitors can also get lots of photo opportunities with the dancers and Muay Thai fighters. So get your cameras ready and take lots of selfies with the first ever authentic Thailand Tuk Tuk in Philippines. You can also get a chance to ride it along the High Street during the event. 

Join us during our opening ceremony on 15 April at 530pm and catch our opening ceremony performance of the Naga (fireball) dance and the Buddha blessing ceremony. This is a traditional ceremony held by many Thais during the Songkran festival. Attending the ceremony will be Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand and is accompanied by His Excellency Thanathip Upatising, Ambassador of Thailand to the Republic of Philippines. Ms. Wilasinee Chanwuttiwong, Miss Thailand 2014, will gracing the event as the host for the opening ceremony. During the opening ceremony, we will watching, Thailand’s Iron chef, Chef Chumpol whom will be showcasing his skills on preparing Phad Thai dish on stage.

Other than enjoying all the fun and food, visitors spending a minimum of 500 pesos in any of our participating vendors, visitors will stand a chance to win 1 of 2 prizes in the grand lucky draw. The grand prize is a pair of return air tickets to Bangkok on Thai Airways and a 3 days 2 nights stay at the Centara Grand Hotel at Central World. To experience even more Thainess, visitors can check out lots of exclusive Thailand travel and tours packages from our 7 participating travel agents, airline and hotel partners. For those who purchase a Thailand travel packages from the participating agents will receive a complimentary 90 minutes Thai massage vouchers to enjoy while they are in Thailand. You can also find out more information for unique travel destinations in Thailand and what are the new attractions from the Tourism Authority of Thailand organizer booth. Another feature in Thailand temple fairs is the dunking machine. Visitors can try out their throwing arm and see how good they are in dunking our “Beauty Queen”. With all the food and fun, you can also get a relaxing Thai massage at the Thai massage booth during the fair. On top of all these, there are plenty of game prizes to be won during our stage activities. 

“I believe that 1000 Smiles Thai Festival will be a good platform to promote the Thainess culture to the visitors. Through this, it will create greater awareness of Thailand and the unique facets of Thainess lifestyle which visitors can experience on their next visit to Thailand” - Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand

So save the date 15 – 17 April and come chill out with us and celebrate Songkran festival at Bonifacio High Street. With so much happening in just 3 days, this is definitely one event that will put a smile on your face.The 1000 Smiles Thai Festival is organized by the Tourism Authority of Thailand. It is supported by the Royal Thai Embassy, Thai Airways, Bangkok Airways, Dusit Thani Hotel and Centara Hotels and Resorts and Hotels, Chang Beer and Bonifacio High Street as the Venue Partner. Visitors can find more information at www.facebook.com/TATPhilippines.