Are you planning on heading to the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival in 2024? Or maybe you’ve never heard of the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival and want more information. Then this guide is for you! I went to the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival in 2022 and made all the mistakes, so you don’t have to. This guide will cover the history behind the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival, the 2024 dates, and advice for attending a free mass-release event. I’ll also give advice on where to stay, how to get to the festival and exactly what to expect!
What is the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival
Yi Peng, Yee Peng, The Celebration of Lights, Loy Krathong. The Lantern Festival goes by many different names. For simplicities sake, I’m just going to refer to it as the Lantern Festival from here on out. The Lantern Festival is a yearly festival occurring in November in the northern Thailand city of Chiang Mai. It’s actually an amalgamation of two different festivals: Yi Peng and Loy Krathong. Yi Peng, traditionally, marks the end of the rainy season in Thailand. Since the 13th century, the Lanna people (a cultural group who live in Chiang Mai) cast paper lanterns in the sky in celebration. Loy Krathong is a festival dating back even further, which occurs in the 12th month of the Thai Lunar Calendar (November). Loy Krathong involved floating flower basket offerings down a body of water to give thanks to water spirits.
Given that they both occur in November, these festivals are combined into one massive multi-day yearly festival in Chiang Mai. The dates of the festival change every year. In 2023, the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival will be celebrated on the 27th and 28th of November. The festival combines water basket offerings and lantern releases with street parades, cultural performances and live music. It is a popular event for locals, domestic tourists and international tourists alike. As its popularity grows, there are now many events all over Chiang Mai. The whole city basically being a massive party during this time!
Planning your travel route around the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival
If you’re going to be in Southeast Asia in the month of November, I highly recommend planning your itinerary around going to the Lantern Festival. While there may be smaller events in other Southeast Asian cities, you really want to attend a mass release event in Chiang Mai. The earlier in advance, you lock in your plans to go to the Lantern Festival, the easier and cheaper it will be for you. People travel from all over South East Asia to attend this festival, so buses will be booked out, and flights will be expensive. That’s not to mention accommodation prices which increase and all the best hostels will be fully booked in advance.
Backpacking is all about freedom and going with the flow; I get it. But you should book your accommodation and bus/plane/train transfer at least a week before the festival (if not more!). The other important thing to consider is where you will be travelling from to get to Chiang Mai. Ideally, trying to make the Lantern Festival work into your itinerary instead of having to backtrack or fly across Asia to experience it will be such a time and money win!
Where to stay for the Lantern Festival
It doesn’t really matter where you stay for the Lantern Festival as long as you book it at least seven days in advance. Accommodation will book out, and the accommodation left will either be expensive or have poor reviews. In terms of location, any accommodation in Chiang Mai City will be fine to get to the Lantern Festival. One of the best areas to stay in Chiang Mai is to the east of the Old Town, near Tha Phae Gate. In this location, you are within walking distance of the night markets and to Old Town for sightseeing. If you are looking for a hostel, Stamps Hostel is one of the best social hostels in South East Asia. They also organise transport and activities around the Lantern Festival, which is super helpful! However, they will book out further in advance than other hostels due to their popularity. You can book all accommodation online here.
The main reason it does not matter where you stay for the Lantern Festival is that mass release events occur far outside the city anyway. They used to occur in Chiang Mai Old Town, but due to aviation disruptions, mass release events have to occur in the nearby countryside, further away from the airport. In 2022, there were still smaller, unadvertised and probably illegal mass-release events in the city. This is not recommended for obvious reasons. In the Old Town, there are still Loy Krathong events where flower baskets are released into waterways. There are also performances, street parades and decorations all around Old Town.
Chiang Mai Lantern Festival Tickets
There are a few official events that are ticketed around the city. Prices usually start from around 4,600 THB Thai Baht per person ($131 USD). This includes a ticket to the mass-release event, transport to and from, two lanterns and one krathong to release. While you may be happy to pay this price and want the convenience of having everything organised for you, this ticket price will be out of a lot of backpackers’ budgets. You may see a lot of information online telling you you have to pay for a ticket to participate in the lantern release. But that is not the only option!
You do not need to pay for tickets to a mass-release event
While not advertised online, there are a few local mass-release events around Chiang Mai. They’re free and completely legal, and you’ll be around more locals than rich tourists. The mass release I attended in 2022 was at Doi Saket, which is around a 30-minute drive out of Chiang Mai City. You can find the exact location on Google Maps as “Doi Saket Lakes” (for booking transport to and from). The closer you get to Doi Saket, the worse the traffic gets, so expect it to take closer to an hour to get there.
The one caveat to attending a free mass release is you will need to organise your own transportation. This can be pretty tricky given there does not seem to be enough drivers for the sheer number of people needing to get to and from the mass release event. Hostels like Stamps Backpackers organise transport to and from the free mass-release events. However, you do have to sign up a few days in advance. I would strongly advise you to sign up to take the headache out of getting there and, even worse, getting back.
If you do need to organise transportation there and back, try to get a group together and book a Songthaew in advance. Songthaews are converted open-air trucks with seats in the back (like a jumbo Tuk Tuk). You can squeeze up to 14 people in the back of a Songthaew. Ensure you organise this a day in advance (or at least early in the afternoon), as drivers get booked. You’ll need to arrange a time to get picked up from your hostel and when you would like to be picked up from Doi Saket. It ended up costing 330 THB Thai Baht ($9.50 USD) per person for return transfers to Doi Saket. We did have around 14 people, though, so the maximum you can squeeze in a Songthaew.
What to expect from Chiang Mai Lantern Festival
The first thing you need to know is it will be busy in Chiang Mai! If you are considering going to the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival in 2023, make sure you arrive at least two days earlier to enjoy all the pre-festival festivities. In the days leading up to the festival, parades, street performances, free cultural events and lantern decorations will cover the city. The local government usually releases schedules detailing free events with exact timings, so watch for those. Otherwise, heading to Tha Phae Gate in Old Town is always a good idea, as there is literally always something going on there!
The mass-release events will have lanterns and krathongs (flower baskets) for sale at reasonable prices, so you don’t need to buy these in advance in the city. It costs us 110 THB Thai Baht ($3 USD) for three lanterns at Doi Saket. The location also has a night market, so you can buy food there. They also have public toilet blocks at the event. Honestly, I would avoid needing to use them as they were gross.
The mass-release events are busy, but you’ll always find a small spot somewhere to release your lantern. There’s no seating, and the spots will be on grass or dirt, so be prepared to stand the whole time you are there. You can stay for as little or as long as you want! People are continuously releasing lanterns; you can always buy more lanterns to release them. By around 9 pm, big droves of people will return to the city. There will be a lot of traffic and chaos, and getting a ride back to the city will be extremely hard unless you have a pre-organised one.
Top Tips for the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival
- Book your accommodation and transport to Chiang Mai for the festival at least a week in advance.
- Try to get to Chiang Mai at least two days before the festival to enjoy the pre-festival festivities.
- You do not need to buy tickets for a mass-release event. Free events like the one held at Doi Saket are just as good!
- Book a return Songthaew or taxi to the mass-release event at least a few hours to a day in advance. Otherwise, you risk being unable to get a taxi there or getting stranded at Doi Saket without a ride back.
- Don’t forget to bring a lighter with you to light your lantern.
- When you get to the mass release event, queue up for lanterns. Buy as many lanterns (or even more) as you think you will need to avoid queueing twice.
- Make sure you do not release your lantern under or near a tree. It will get stuck and catch on fire. It may sound like common sense, but it happened to so many people!
Did you find this blog post helpful? Want to see more travel tips and recommendations?
Join me on Tik Tok and Instagram for daily travel content!
This blog is a free and independent source of information for all things travel and backpacking. If you benefitted from the information on this blog, please consider using the affiliate links to book hostels/activities etc. This will be at no extra cost to you but helps subsidise the cost of running a free travel blog.
