13 cultural events to explore in Bangkok this rainy season, handpicked by Koktail.

If you look out your window, you’ll notice the sky has gone a bit melancholic. The sun still shows up, mostly around lunchtime, like it’s doing us a favour. But rain has firmly taken residence in Bangkok. Temporary? Perhaps. Committed? Absolutely.

So, what do we do with this soggy situation? We lean into culture, obviously. Koktail has pulled together a lineup of things worth leaving the house for: old-school romance film screenings, Hindu-inspired art, a tribute to Franz Liszt and Hungarian culture, plus an Oscar Wilde comedy that promises wit and sharp banter.

1/13 Mu Te Art: Spiritual Art & Art Toys Fair

Dates & Time: 15-17 May, 10am-7.30pm
Venue: K Village, Sukhumvit 26
Admission: Free

If art fairs and occult gatherings had a stylish love child, it would probably look a lot like Mu Te Art. Bringing together artists like PUCK and other notable creatives, the event offers a dreamy crossover of artistic expression, spirituality, fortune telling and just the right sprinkle of witchcraft energy. From cute trinkets and stickers to paintings and beautifully odd design pieces, there’s plenty to admire and accidentally spend money on.

2/13 Mahannop Walking Street

Dates & Time: 16-17 May, 4pm-10pm
Venue: Mahannop Road, Phra Nakhon
Admission: Free

Mahannop Walking Street is set to take over Mahannop Road in Bangkok’s Old Town, bringing together more than 180 food stalls and local favourites from the Phra Nakhon district in one place. The stretch near the Giant Swing and Wat Suthat is expected to turn into a lively walking food route. It’s the kind of setup where passing through Old Town might turn into a full meal plan you didn’t really make in advance.

3/13 Hua Lamphong Nostalgia Fair

Dates & Time: Now until 23 May, 4pm-11pm
Venue: MRT Hua Lamphong Station, Exit 2
Admission: Free

Hua Lamphong is going full retro for 10 days straight, turning into a vintage haven that is just very hard to resist. You come in thinking you will have a short look around, then suddenly you are eating your way through legendary street food stalls. It is the kind of place where time disappears a bit. The canal-side setting adds to the whole mood, making even your spontaneous shopping feel oddly cinematic.

4/13 Neilson Hays Library Book Sale

Dates & Time: 16–24 May, 9.30am–5pm (except on 18 May)
Venue: Neilson Hays Library, Surawong
Admission: Free

The Neilson Hays Library book sale is back, and book nerds already know the drill. Twice a year, this place turns into a secondhand book goldmine where stories keep moving from person to person like they are on a very long journey. You will find everything from fiction and non-fiction to kids’ books and philosophy doorstoppers. The setting, a gorgeous neoclassical building, makes it feel like you are on an Indiana Jones-style mission for forgotten knowledge. The books are cheap, but the finds feel priceless.

5/13 Liszt Festival: Hungarian Cultural Festival in Thailand

Dates & Time: 22-24 May, 10am-9pm
Venue: Sala Sudasiri Sobha, Ladprao 41
Admission: Starting THB 1,200
Tickets via: salasudasirisobha.com

The Liszt Festival is shaping up to be one of Bangkok’s first major tributes to Franz Liszt, but it is not stopping at the composer alone, doubling as a broader celebration of Hungarian culture. The programme features concerts by an impressive lineup including Pana Yontararak on piano, Boonyakdee Nakdee on flute and many more. Alongside the performances, there are workshops, masterclasses and even food and wine tastings.

6/13 Plae Kao (The Scar) and Roman Holiday at Sala Chalerm Thani

Dates & Time: 23-24 May, 3pm
Venue: Sala Chalerm Thani, Nang Loeng Market
Admission: Free

Sala Chalerm Thani is set to serve up two very different kinds of heartbreak: Plae Kao, the Thai classic where Kwan and Riam’s rural love story gets torn apart by family, tradition and terrible timing, and Roman Holiday, where Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck turn a runaway princess and a journalist’s one perfect day in Rome into pure, fleeting magic before reality crashes the party. One is fate doing its worst; the other is freedom on borrowed time.

7/13 Contemporary World Film Series 2026: Laapataa Ladies by Kiran Rao

Date & Time: 24 May, 4pm
Venue: TK Park CentralWorld
Admission: THB 20 (for Non-TK Park members)
Reservations: filmforum17@gmail.com

Part of TK Park’s Contemporary World Film Series 2026, Laapataa Ladies, directed by Kiran Rao, follows two brides who get accidentally swapped on a train, spiralling into identity confusion. Throw in some sharp social commentary on rural India, and you get a film that is fun and smarter than it first lets on. The movie is not without heart and light moments, though. Rao’s grounded direction is exactly what makes it land so well on the big screen.

8/13 Siwilai City Club Presents After Work Feat. Noi Pru

Date & Time: 29 May, 8pm
Venue: Siwilai City Club, Central Embassy
Admission: Free
Reservations: +66 2 267 0415 or @siwilaisocialclub (LINE)

This round of Siwilai City Club’s After Work welcomes Krissada Sukosol Clapp, or Noi from Pru, the band that floated into the early 2000s with dreamy guitar sounds. But if you ask fans, Noi is just as famous for his dramatic, ballet-like stage moves, which he is still very much serving today. Because sometimes after work you do not need chill, you need full theatrical release, preferably with a bit of Noi-style dancing.

9/13 SKIRUA’s Hell of Love

Dates: Now until 31 May
Venue: Tang Contemporary Art, River City Bangkok
Admission: Free

SKIRUA’s Hell of Love imagines love as a world unto itself, a love that exists not because it happens to but because it has to. SKIRUA’s love comes in flashes of vivid colour, like dying brightly as one plunges into the depths of hell – how romantic. Shapes and colours clash and bounce off each other, influenced by Japanese anime style and fashion. The exhibition is one hell of a place to get lost in this burning, world-ending love.

10/13 Echoes of Us by Molticha Pongudompanya

Dates: Now until 31 May
Venue: Joyman Gallery, Phra Nakhon
Admission: Free

Echoes of Us by Molticha Pongudompanya is a solo exhibition that plays on the idea of traces, what is left behind in jagged memory and incomplete presence. In her work, Molticha abolishes the distinction between “us” and “them”, blurring boundaries until identity feels shared rather than separated. The works suggest that nothing fully disappears, only transforms into echoes that linger between people and places, where meaning is always in motion.

11/13 The Importance of Being Earnest by Bangkok Community Theatre

Dates: 11-14 June
Venue: The British Club, Silom Soi 18
Admission: THB 700 (Regular), THB 600 (Student)
Tickets via: Ticketmelon

The Bangkok Community Theatre is staging a gender- and age-blind take on Oscar Wilde’s wildly hilarious The Importance of Being Earnest. It is all fake names, double lives and things going very wrong very quickly: Jack is “Ernest” in town, Algernon is also pretending, and the Capital-T truth does not even stand a chance. Directed by Ricardo R. L. Hizon and Nabila Malik with musical direction by Marek Sison, it is sure to be a fast, witty take on a classic mess of lies. Being earnest is important in this day and age, you know, assuming anyone still has time for it.

12/13 Ganesha: 2 Artists, 2 Perspectives

Dates: Now until 5 July
Venue: Charoen43 Art and Eatery, Charoenkrung 43
Admission: Free

Ganesha, one of the most important and revered deities in Hinduism, is reimagined in two parts in this exhibition: in painting (often pushing into beautifully abstract forms) by Piya Charoenmuang, using printmaking techniques to build a sense of depth, and in ceramics by Yonkwan “Paint” Thanyaset, which explores how “cracks” can become moments of transformation. Curated by Kullaya Kassakul, this exhibition speaks to devotees and art lovers alike.

13/13 The Preservation of Fire by Busui Ajaw

Dates: 15 May – 1 November
Venue: Bangkok Kunsthalle, Yaowarat
Admission: Free

The Preservation of Fire by Busui Ajaw maps Akha culture across Thailand, Myanmar and Laos, reflecting on mass cultural amnesia and the gradual disappearance of inherited knowledge. The first floor gathers traditional objects within a “fabric of memory”, while the second holds a reconstructed Akha house from Chiang Rai, rebuilt inside the gallery as both shelter and remembrance. It’s collective remembering in action, for both cultural identity and mere survival.