Flower Festival - Chiang Rai

The 7th annual Flower Festival, Chiang Rai is being held from the 25th December to 3rd January 2011 at the Suan Mai Ngam Park in Chiang Rai, on the bank of Kok River. This is a new location for the flower festival and is a great improvement over the old venue. The setting is stunning, right on the bank of the river with everything well laid out and signposted. There are ample parking facilities which are also well organized.

The Chiang Rai Flower Festival is a riot of colour but perhaps the most unusual and surprising sight at a flower festival in Thailand, and what has become the trademark of the Chiang Rai Flower Festival, is a vast field of tulips in all their various colours.

From the car park, a short walk takes you through an enormous market with everything from amazing orchids to unusual fruit trees on sale. Once inside the actual park, the floral displays are absolutely amazing and beautifully set out.

With fountains, a waterfall and an enormous wall of flowers, the Chiang Rai Flower Festival has really come of age and makes a great day out for all the family. An area, clean and tidy, has been set aside for food stalls offering a very large variety of dishes and from the undercover seating there is a splendid view of the Kok river.
There are of course competitions for the best blooms but this flower festival is not really about plants in pots although there are plenty of these to be seen. The real beauty of the new Chiang Rai Flower Festival is in the setting with well landscaped displays set against a backdrop of mature trees and the Kok river.
The Flower Festival opened with a floral parade and there are also beauty competitions being held throughout the festival. Chiang Rai has to be congratulated on putting together such a well organized and attractive festival.