A meeting was held today at Uang Kham Sai restaurant at Old Chiang Mai, lead by the director of TCEB Chiang Mai and Naruemon Chomdok, a well known food blogger and representative of the Chiang Mai Restaurant Association. The event was attended by local media, members of various relevant organisations as well as representatives of the Restaurant Association.
As part of the city-wide drive to propel Chiang Mai into becoming a festival city. TCEB, or Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau, is taking the lead in repositioning Chiang Mai as a city with twelve months of themed festivals. There are other groups currently working on other aspects of what will become a citywide festival city.
According to TCEB, each month, as of January 2025, will be allocated a theme, with hopes that citizens, businesses, organisations and other groups will contribute to each theme, creating a vibrant, international festival city which is vibrant—and attractive to visitors—year round. January 2025’s theme is Festive and Happiness, to mark the celebrations of the beginning of the year and the Food Festival will be one of main events to kickoff here entirely Chiang Mai’s Festival City calendar.
Currently, TCEB’s concept is to leverage current festivals and events in Chiang Mai, pulling them into the themed festival calendar, with the aim of focusing events on home grown and locally-lead events which is hoped will benefit the greater city of Chiang Mai as well as the province as a whole.
Today’s meeting focused on the second Chiang Mai Food Festival, following last year’s success, also held at Old Chiang Mai, thought there are talks of expanding the concept over the coming years to encompass the entire city. The aim of the food festival is to tell Chiang Mai’s story through our food, under this year’s general theme ‘Mood Food’, or the promotion eating well for mental health and happiness.
The event, which will be held on the 24th-26th January 2025, will be a much larger event than last year’s with many add-on features to enhance the entire experience. There will be a focus on nostalgic food, on environmentally friendly and zero waste food, on health food while also featuring an artisanal market, ethnic, local as well as international and Thai foods. Local groceries and producers will be encouraged to feature their products as well as innovative products which will be highlighted throughout the festival. Zero waste and environmental groups are also stepping in to help with sustainable festival practices, while various government agencies have pledged to facilitate issues such as alcohol sales, visas and work permits for all.
The event will feature activities, live music, creative chef’s tables, workshops including food photography and drawing, cooking classes, talks and all sorts of fun and interactive activities.
Honorary British Consul Ben Svasti Thomson, as founder of the Chiang Mai Festival City, was then asked to talk about his recent visit to Edinburgh Festivals explained that the concept for the Chiang Mai Festival City began with Citylife Chiang Mai, who first proposed this idea 30 years ago. When Ben heard about the concept 15 years ago, he began to discuss this concept. By June 2022, the governor of Chiang Mai had officially set Chiang Mai Festival City as a provincial strategy and there are currently numerous groups involved with this project—leading to much confusion. But which Citylife will hopefully help clarify, as we too untangle the exciting but rather convoluted web!
However, following two visits to Edinburgh Festivals in August 2023 and 2024, with Ben Svasti as well as Citylife Editor in Chief Pim Kemasingki and an organiser as three attendees to both years’ visits, there is some traction being made and the Chiang Mai Food Festival is likely to become the first major event kicking off this new provincial strategy.
January’s theme, as currently set by TCEB is ‘Festive Happiness’ which is about beginnings, celebrations and joy—hence the Chiang Mai Food Festival. See attached image for other set themes for next year.
To find out more about the Chiang Mai Food Festival, or get involved, please contact FB: ChiangMaiFoodFestival
