2022 Bun Bung Fai Rocket Festival in Isan promises plenty of sky-high action to watch

Held in May at the end of the dry season, the Bun Bangfai festival is held to bring rains down from the heavens, by firing rockets into the air. Bun Bangfai starts with all-night partying on Friday, parade day on Saturday, and Sunday, when the rockets are launched.(Tourism Authority of Thailand)

Scheduled for 10 - 12 May, the famous Northeast Thailand event is returning to Yasothon and Kalasin after 2 years with rocket launching, parades, and more on the program.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) invites tourists to experience one of the must-see spectacles of the annual festival calendar – the exhilarating Bun Bung Fai Rocket Festival in the Northeastern Thai provinces of Yasothon and in Kalasin.

The annual rocket festival, which takes place in the Northeast as the rainy season begins, is seen as a way of encouraging the rains to fall and to help the local rice crops to grow. It also allows people to have a fun and festive break before the hard work of planting and harvesting begins.

The celebrations differ from province to province, but mostly involve the firing of home-made rockets up into the sky with teams competing against each other to send their rockets the highest – some up to hundreds of feet. There are different types of rockets classified by the weight of gunpowder they carry. ‘Bung Fai Kilo’ indicates a rocket has 1 kg of gunpowder, ‘Bung Fai Muen’ is 12 kg, and ‘Bung Fai Saen’ is 120 kg. There are also parades with floats and displays of traditional costumes and folk dancing.

The Festival can be enjoyed in many provinces of Isan including Kalasin, Roi Et, and Yasothon with festivities in Yasothon and Kalasin being among the largest and most well-known of them all. There is also a rocket festival in Sukhirin district in the Southern province of Narathiwat initiated by the people who moved south from Isan.