Memorable Press
Browse fonts
Yasothon · May · Rain rites · Safety

Bun Bang Fai, the rocket festival

At the end of the hot season, villages and towns across northeast Thailand build bamboo and steel rockets, parade them through the streets with music and dancing, and fire them into the sky to remind the god of the sky to send the rain. Bun Bang Fai is part prayer, part competition and part carnival. Here is where it comes from, when and where to see it, and how to watch safely.

Rockets for rain

บุญบั้งไฟ (bun bang fai) means the merit festival of the fire tubes. It belongs to Isan, the northeast, and to Laos across the Mekong, where people speak the same language and grow rice that depends entirely on the rains. It falls in the sixth lunar month, May or June, when the fields are dry and waiting. In the round of twelve merit-making customs that order the Isan year, the heet sip song, it is the festival of the sixth month.

The story behind it is told in many versions. A long drought struck the earth, seven years, seven months and seven days, because Phaya Thaen, the god of the sky, was angry. The toad king, Phaya Khankhak, led the animals of the earth to war against him and won, and the sky god promised to send rain every year. The rockets remind him of his promise. Toads and frogs, which croak when the first rains come, are honoured in the festival too.

What happens

A Bun Bang Fai usually lasts two or three days. The first is the procession: decorated rockets, their bodies carved and painted, with naga heads and gold paper, ride through the streets on floats, accompanied by dancers in local costume and bands of khaen, the Isan mouth organ, playing the dance music called mo lam. The mood is loose and often bawdy. Fertility symbols, men dressed as women and jokes about sex belong to the tradition, because the festival is about fertility, of the fields as well as of people.

The following days are for the launches. Teams from villages, temples and companies bring their rockets to a launch site with tall bamboo or steel towers and fire them one by one. Judges score how high a rocket climbs and how long it stays in the air, and the crowd cheers or groans. Teams whose rockets fail to leave the tower, or explode on it, are thrown into the mud by their friends.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand describes three common sizes, named by the weight of powder they carry:

ClassThaiPowder
Bang fai kiloบั้งไฟกิโลAbout 1 kilogram
Bang fai muenบั้งไฟหมื่นAbout 12 kilograms
Bang fai saenบั้งไฟแสนAbout 120 kilograms

The fuel is a home-made black powder of saltpetre and charcoal, packed into the tube by teams who guard their recipes. The old bamboo tubes have largely given way to plastic and steel, and the biggest rockets fly for kilometres.

Where and when

Yasothon holds the best-known festival, over a weekend in May: 10 to 12 May in 2024, 16 to 18 May in 2025 and 8 to 10 May in 2026. Its parade is the most elaborate in the country, and the launches take place at the park named after Phaya Thaen. Other well-known festivals are held in Kuchinarai in Kalasin and in Roi Et, and the custom has travelled as far south as Sukhirin in Narathiwat, settled by families from the northeast. Most villages in Isan hold a smaller one of their own between May and early July; ask at your hotel or in the local market.

Yasothon has no airport. Most visitors fly to Ubon Ratchathani or Roi Et and drive the last hour or two, or take a long-distance bus from Bangkok. Rooms in town are scarce over the festival weekend, so book early or stay in Ubon.

Watching safely

  • Stay where the organisers tell you. Launch sites have viewing areas for a reason: a rocket can turn sideways or fall back.
  • Keep well back from the towers, and further still for the large classes. In June 2024 a misfiring rocket at Phon Thong in Roi Et injured 37 spectators.
  • Watch the sky after a launch, and move if a rocket or its tail comes down near you.
  • Mind the drinking. Rice whisky flows freely at the parade; drivers and anyone near the powder should stay sober.
  • Protect your ears if you stand near the towers, and bring a hat and water for the heat.

And remember what the rockets are for. Teams may bring their rocket to a temple first, and the festival ends, the elders hope, with the first good rain of the year.

Sources

Checked against the sources below. Rules, fees and dates change, sometimes at short notice: confirm with the Tourism Authority of Thailand or the province before you rely on them.

Questions people ask

When is the Yasothon rocket festival?

Over a weekend in May, usually the second or third: 10 to 12 May in 2024, 16 to 18 May in 2025 and 8 to 10 May in 2026. The province announces the dates in spring, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand lists them in its events calendar.

Is the rocket festival dangerous?

It can be. The big rockets carry over a hundred kilograms of powder, and misfires happen: in June 2024 a rocket that went wrong at a festival in Roi Et injured 37 people. Watch from the areas the organisers set aside, well back from the launch towers, and move away if a rocket veers.

Related

Thai foodThai food region by region, how a Thai meal is put together, the words you need to order (in Thai script with romanisation), how to ask for less or more chilli, and table manners.Pu Sae Ya SaeThe yearly offering to Pu Sae and Ya Sae, the guardian spirits of Chiang Mai, at the foot of Doi Kham: the legend, the medium and the buffalo, when it is held, and how to watch respectfully.The Buddhist calendarHow the Thai Buddhist calendar works: the Buddhist Era, the lunar months, why Makha Bucha, Visakha Bucha and the Buddhist Lent move every year, and the weekly holy days.Languages of ThailandThe languages spoken in Thailand: Central Thai, Northern Thai, Isan, Southern Thai, Pattani Malay and Northern Khmer, how they relate to one another, and the scripts they are written in.Thai cultureGuides to Thai culture: the calendar and public holidays, Buddhism and the temples, regional food, festivals, the anthems, Muay Thai, massage and the hermit exercises.