Bangkok Lights Up the Chao Phraya for 31 Nights, Giant Cats Included
Vijit Chao Phraya runs free every night from 13 November to 13 December, with 800-drone shows over Wat Arun and fireworks on set dates.
Runs nightly until Sun 13 Dec
For the next month, Bangkok's river has a light show on almost every bend. Vijit Chao Phraya 2026 runs from 13 November to 13 December, 6pm to 10pm every night, across 19 riverside locations between the Rama VIII and Rama III bridges, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). It's free to watch from the banks.
This is the festival's fifth year, under the theme "The Light of Imagination". The headline act is at Wat Arun, where 800-drone light shows go up at 7.50pm on ten evenings: 13, 15, 18, 20, 25 and 27 November and 2, 4, 9 and 11 December. Memorial Bridge becomes "Hanuman Awakening the River of Light", Rama VIII Bridge has five-minute laser shows every half hour from 7pm, and fireworks go off on set nights from Memorial Bridge, Rama VIII Bridge and Rama III Bridge.
Some of it is stranger. An abandoned building at Soi Lhong 1919 hosts "Two Cats, One Journey", six shows a night using what TAT calls Light On Balloon, and from 13 to 15 November a lit-up barge called "Vessel of Joy & Smiles" sails between Sathorn and Rama III Bridge. ICONSIAM puts on water-feature shows, and three universities have made installations, including Chulalongkorn University's take on the colours and patterns of Benjarong porcelain at Asiatique.
TAT expects more than 1.4 million visitors. You can watch from riverside parks, piers and walkways, or from sightseeing and dinner cruises booked with licensed operators. Show times vary by site and date, and TAT points to thailandfestival.org and the festival's Facebook page for the full schedule.
Wat Arun is the Temple of Dawn, so its drones turn up roughly ten hours early.
