{"id":28825,"date":"2026-07-24T16:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T09:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.koktailmagazine.com\/?p=28825"},"modified":"2026-07-24T16:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T09:30:09","slug":"friday-future-lister-the-man-who-woke-up-songkhla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.koktailmagazine.com\/th\/2026\/07\/24\/friday-future-lister-the-man-who-woke-up-songkhla\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Future Lister: The Man Who Woke Up Songkhla"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Pakorn ‘Aey’ Rujiravilai turned a sleepy southern port town into one of Thailand’s most exciting arts districts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are few people who can reinvent an entire city without ever seeming to try. In Songkhla, that person is Pakorn Rujiravilai<\/a>, though nobody down south calls him that. To everyone here he is simply Aey, the man who looked at a sleepy port town most travellers only passed through and decided it was worth stopping for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past 13 years he has screened films in a converted shophouse, coaxed old grocers into being photographed, turned hand fans into a talking point and dragged Songkhla’s Old Town back to life. He runs a printing business by day. He grew up hauling fishing nets. He swapped the galleries of New York and Bangkok for a house where the sea is a short walk away. So what does a boy from a fishing family have in common with the most exciting arts district in southern Thailand? Rather a lot, as it turns out. So, dear readers, take the tea he offers and let Aey show you how a town wakes up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Three Minutes to the Sea<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I lived in Songkhla for a spell, so allow me to share the detail no guidebook bothers with: the whole place runs on nearness. Nothing is far. You can be eating breakfast, buying paint and dipping your feet in the Gulf of Thailand within the span of a single pop song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the table between us at a.e.y.space, on Nang Ngam Road<\/strong>, there’s a stack of proofs for an upcoming festival, still warm-smelling from the press, which Aey keeps straightening as he talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“After moving back, I realised how happy I was to be somewhere where everything is just three minutes away.”<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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“From my house to the beach takes three minutes. Everywhere is three minutes away. Everything is close and I have so much more time. Even when work gets busy, I still get to walk around and discover interesting things. That’s when I started seeing opportunities. I realised things could actually happen here.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by Aey Pakorn Rujiravilai (@aey.pakorn)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n