The best things to do in Bangkok this weekend (January 22-25)

Fire EX. began life in 2000, growing up alongside the docks of Kaohsiung, where noise carries and feelings tend to stay close to the surface. Fronted by Sam Yang with Orio, JC and KG, the band learnt their early lessons from Japanese melodic punk mainstays like Hi-Standard and HUSKING BEE, then bent that sound around Taiwanese lyrics that read like private diary entries shouted across a room. Since then, their story has travelled far beyond home. Shows at CMJ in New York, CMW and SXSW in Canada, plus Summer Sonic and Fuji Rock, have added new chapters, as have collaborations with 10-FEET, locofrank and MONOEYES. Now, they arrive in Bangkok as part of their Asia tour, carrying that same sense of camaraderie. Back home, founding FireBall Festival, Taiwan’s first punk gathering, felt less like a career move and more like setting the table for everyone who ever felt understood by a loud guitar.

January 22. B1,800 via here. Artspace@Bantadthong, 8pm onwards

The House on Sathorn at W Bangkok opens its doors to Cross Culture again, this time turning its attention north. The focus lands on Chiang Mai, a place that wears its Lanna heritage lightly but confidently, shaped by mountain mornings, old rituals and kitchens that still cook with patience. The food traditions here favour fragrance over flash, guided by seasons and hands that know when to wait. This chapter of the series brings that sensibility south, led by Chef Khun Apisit Jessadaporn of Maaterr. His cooking feels conversational rather than showy, built on memory, spice and a clear respect for where ingredients come from. Served at Paii Restaurant, the menu reads like a quiet love letter to Chiang Mai, translating its landscapes and habits for Bangkok diners without sanding off the edges that make it feel real.

January 23. Reserve via 02-344-4025, email [email protected] or here. Paii, The House on Sathorn, 7pm-11pm

January marks a century since John Coltrane was born and Thailand International Jazz Conference is marking the moment with the kind of attention it deserves. Jazz musicians from every corner are heading to Salaya, bringing reverence rather than nostalgia. A dedicated exhibition follows Coltrane’s path from bebop discipline to spiritual searching, mapping how one artist kept asking bigger questions. The centrepiece arrives at Prince Mahidol Hall. A Love Supreme is reimagined for full orchestra and jazz ensemble, performed by the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra with Donny McCaslin as soloist. Elsewhere, the main stage stretches comfortably between eras. Joey Calderazzo appears in trio form, Seamus Blake returns with a tight quartet and Luca Filastro offers stride piano flair, courtesy of the Italian Cultural Institute of Bangkok. For a few days, Salaya feels like home for anyone listening closely.

January 23-25. B500-3,000 via here. College of Music, Mahidol University, various times.

Made By Legacy returns with its idea of a ‘New Old Community’, set high above the city in an elevated park that feels quietly removed from street level. For three days, Bangkok’s newest creative corner hosts a careful mix of vintage and lifestyle finds, shaped by memory but never stuck there. New sellers join familiar names, adding a cooler edge to the line-up without losing its warmth. Over 250 handpicked vendors fill the space, offering vintage clothing, designer pieces, ceramics, vinyl, books, art and furniture chosen with real intent. Food stalls and cocktail bars sit among fresh greenery, while DJs and live musicians keep the mood easy. Families wander, friends linger and dogs nap in the shade. It feels less like an event and more like a weekend habit worth keeping.

January 23-25. B160 at the door. Sky Park, Cloud 11, 1pm-11pm

Start the year by giving your bookshelf a gentle refresh at Read Fest, a reading festival that treats books as shared pleasures rather than homework. The fair returns with a programme designed to suit every age, encouraging families to wander, linger and discover titles they didn’t know they needed. This edition follows the theme Reading Journey, unfolding inside Hua Lamphong Station, a place already shaped by departures, arrivals and quiet anticipation. Words travel well here. Across the festival, conversations sit alongside live music, hands-on workshops, exhibitions and an art and craft market that invites slow browsing. A dedicated Reading Space turns the station hall into an open library, welcoming anyone to sit with a book for as long as they like. It feels relaxed and generous, reminding visitors that reading doesn’t need rules, just time, curiosity and a comfortable place to pause.

January 23-25. Free. Hua Lamphong Railway Station, 10.30am-10pm

Bangkok gets its own late-night talk show, only nothing is written down and nobody knows what happens next. A host sits behind a desk, guests wander on and the rest is decided in real time, shaped by audience suggestions shouted without overthinking. Interviews twist, games derail and musical moments appear when someone feels brave enough. Everything stays live and unapologetically unpolished. The format borrows the bones of a classic chat show, then bends them with improv instincts and a sense of play. Think Whose Line Is It Anyway? raised on after-hours television, slightly feral and very self-aware. What works is the closeness. You watch performers listen hard, react faster and trust each other completely. Some jokes land, some wobble and that is the point. The night feels shared, like a conversation that just happens to have a spotlight.

January 23. B400 via here and B550 at the door. The Comedy Club Bangkok, 8pm onwards

Jesper Haynes presents a photography exhibition that looks back at downtown New York in the ‘80s and ‘90s with clear eyes and no soft focus. Faces feel close, streets feel tight and the city shows itself without asking for permission. Featuring figures like Andy Warhol and Naomi Campbell, the work traces Haynes’ long fascination with street life, sparked when Warhol invites him to New York as a teenager and quietly changes his direction. Haynes earns a reputation for photographing the edges of urban life with honesty that never feels staged. His black-and-white images read like pages torn from a private notebook, raw but deliberate. Often described as a rebel diarist, he documents nights, friendships and passing moments that refuse nostalgia. What stays with you is the intimacy, as if the city leans over to tell you a secret and trusts you not to interrupt.

January 24-February 14. Free. Chaloem La Art House, midday-6pm

Public House Hotel hosts a Saturday that keeps things simple and generous, built around music and shared time. Irish flute player and singer Shannon Heaton leads the day, bringing her easy authority and quiet warmth to Bangkok. The afternoon begins with an open workshop, welcoming acoustic instruments of all kinds. She teaches a tune by ear, paying attention to rhythm and lift rather than technical display, and the room listens closely. As evening settles, Heaton returns for an intimate solo set, moving between songs, flute melodies and stories that feel spoken rather than performed. The night then loosens its collar. Musicians drift back in, instruments appear and an informal Irish session carries on without fuss. Some people play, others listen and nobody rushes off. It feels like a small pocket of elsewhere, briefly and happily shared.

January 24. B300 via here. Free workshop (registration needed). Public House Bangkok, 4pm and 6pm

January sees FAC51 The Hacienda resurface in Bangkok, reworking a secret city-centre venue as a retro-future rave playground for one night only. Three decades on, the Manchester institution still carries global weight, making this Southeast Asia revival feel quietly historic rather than nostalgic. It’s a nod to the long flirtation between Manchester and Krung Thep, a relationship sparked in the ‘80s and kept alive by those who still dress, dance and listen with intent. Born in 1982, The Haçienda didn’t just host parties, it rewired nightlife, setting templates that cities still borrow from. This edition brings a Bangkok first for Basement Jaxx, the duo who bent dance music sideways at the millennium. 25 years after ‘Rooty’, their DJ sets still feel playful and unruly, hopping between house staples, broken rhythms and carnival-minded twists. Expect sweat, smiles and a crowd that forgets what time it is meant to be.

January 24. B2,600-9,250 via here. Venue to be announced.

Bangkok’s reputation as a concert capital didn’t arrive by accident and the calendar for next year looks just as crowded. Bangkok Music City returns after last year’s strong showing, taking over the Charoenkrung Creative District for two days of business talk and live sound. Thai names lead the charge, with Apartment Khunpa, Bedroom Audio, DEFYING DECAY, Kosum Boy and Lepyutin opening proceedings, joined by artists flying in from across Asia. South Korea sends OWAVE, 87dance, Animal Divers, Milena and SUAUN, while Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam add their own voices. France’s FÜLÜ and Jamaica Moana from Australia and New Zealand stretch the map further. Spread across Bangrak Post Office and Talad Noi, it’s free with registration, which feels quietly generous, or you can skip the queues with a Priority Lane ticket for B350.

January 24-25. Free or B350 for Priority Lane. Central Bangrak Post Office area and Talad Noi district 

Asoke Sports Club marks its fifth anniversary with a volleyball and pickleball tournament that is as social as it is competitive. Set on a rooftop, the day mixes serious play with a relaxed, open atmosphere. Members of Thailand’s national team, fresh from a silver medal at the SEA Games, share the court with elite sides from across the region, raising the standard without killing the fun. Between matches, live music drifts across the space while food and drinks circulate easily. Vendor stalls add colour, giving spectators reasons to linger even when the games pause. Players cheer for rivals, friends shout encouragement from the sidelines and strangers start talking over shared shade. It reads less like a formal competition and more like a neighbourhood gathering, one that celebrates movement, teamwork and the simple pleasure of showing up together.

January 24-25. For volleyball, B3,000-4,400 via here and for pickleball, B1,200-1,500 via here. Asoke Sports Club.

Reading in the Park returns for its third chapter after EP2 quietly proved that strangers will happily sit together and read if given the chance. More than 500 people turned up last time, which says a lot about how hungry Bangkok feels for slower forms of company. EP3 continues that gentle idea through the Bangkok Offline Reading Club, inviting people to step away from feeds and notifications and show up properly. Cooler weather helps, making grass seating and long chapters feel like a small luxury rather than a test of stamina. Over 200 readers have already signed up, each bringing a book or e-reader and agreeing to keep phones tucked away. Swapping titles is encouraged, whether planned or spontaneous. The aim isn’t networking or productivity, just shared quiet. A small note of care remains around PM2.5 levels, so pace yourself and listen to your body.

January 24. Free. Register via here. The Amphitheatre in Benjakitti Park, 4pm-6pm

FUSE makes his Thailand debut with IGNITE, a solo exhibition that sits between cultures without trying to smooth the edges. Born in 1985 and now based in Tokyo, he works through oil paint, folding Japanese and American pop references into images that feel familiar yet slightly unsettled. At the centre is LOOKA, a recurring figure shaped by cloud-like lines that never quite settle. The form shifts from canvas to canvas, hovering between character and idea. Guided by the notion of seeing with the mind’s eye, LOOKA looks back at a world crowded with information, searching for something steadier underneath. Clouds stand for freedom, though they also blur vision, turning clarity into mist. That tension runs quietly through the work. Nothing here offers easy answers, only a reminder that truth often hides behind soft edges and patient looking.

Until February 8. Free. KYLA Gallery and Wine Bar, 3pm-midnight

For queer communities, dreaming works as a form of practice rather than escape. It shows up through imagination, divination and half-remembered thoughts, offering ways to picture futures. Paradiso: Reverie, curated by Oat Montien, holds space for that process. The programme brings together performances and screenings by contemporary Queer Asian artists and close collaborators, sharing work that feels speculative, intimate and deliberately unfinished. Each piece asks how collective visioning might look when certainty feels overrated. Presented at Bangkok Kunsthalle, the series grows from an ongoing collaboration with Rosalia Namsai Engchuan through the Futures Observatory, grounding the ideas without fixing them in place. 

January 25. Free. Bangkok Kunsthalle, 6pm onwards

The Imprint Project opens its first chapter with a focus on marks that travel further than borders. Conceived as an international printmaking initiative, the idea is simple and generous: one country at a time, letting each exhibition carry its own cultural residue. This edition brings together 16 artists from Poland alongside works from Pracownia414 Studio, forming a conversation that moves through technique, texture and intention. Printmaking here isn’t treated as a historical footnote but as a living language shaped by social conditions and personal memory. Etchings, presses and layered surfaces reveal how identity settles on paper in quiet but deliberate ways. The project itself acts as a meeting point, linking artists across continents while offering audiences a chance to read the traces left behind. Not grand statements, but thoughtful impressions that reward close looking and patient attention.

Until January 30. Free. Arun Amarin 23 Art Space, 11am-4pm

A Kid from Yesterday returns with a fifth solo outing that feels quietly defiant. Somphon ‘Paolo’ Ratanavaree’s latest body of work steps back from certainty and sits without knowing, a rare move in a culture obsessed with definitions. Titled “Just” BEING BE/NG BE—NG, the exhibition borrows from Camus’ Philosophy of Sisyphus while nodding to the calm discipline of a Zen garden. The result isn’t comfort or escape, but acceptance of contradiction. Cigarettes sit opposite raked sand, everyday habits facing ritual stillness, neither winning the argument. This space doesn’t promise healing or answers. It allows doubt to exist without apology. Being human here means pausing, noticing and carrying on regardless. In a world eager for declarations, the show suggests something softer and braver: existing without explanation might already be enough.

January 17-March 1. Free. Street Star Gallery, 8am-6pm

This feels like the sort of exhibition you stumble across on a slow afternoon and end up thinking about days later. Jean-Paul De Croux’s abstract paintings sit quietly, asking you to slow your pace and notice what’s happening on the surface. Inspired by the natural world, each canvas carries traces of time through layered marks, rough textures and gestures that feel both deliberate and instinctive. Light slips across the work in subtle ways, changing how colours behave and how forms settle. Emotion isn’t announced but sensed, like weather rolling in. Nothing here feels fixed or final. Memory, movement and material seem to shift depending on how long you stay with them. It’s less an exhibition to decode and more a moment to share, reflective without being precious and reassuringly human in its restraint.

Until February 8. Free. 5/F, Art Jewel, Siam Paragon, 10am-10pm

Bangkok welcomes 2026 with a knowing wink as Muse Anime Festival sets up at JAM SPACE, a familiar meeting point for pop culture devotees. This is less trade fair, more shared obsession. Fourteen anime titles spread across 17 photo zones turn fandom into a walk-through experience, complete with oversized sets and scenes designed for lingering rather than rushing. Expect towering inflatables of Momo and Okarun from DAN DA DAN plus Rimuru, the eternally cheerful slime, looming large for cameras. Beyond the visuals, shelves fill with officially licensed pieces and harder-to-find imports, tempting even the disciplined collector. Food gets its own moment too, thanks to a themed cafe riffing on SPY x FAMILY and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. 

January 10-March 29. Free. 4/F, MBK Centre, 11am-9pm

The second solo exhibition by Thai artist Krittin Kaewyongphang, better known as Condo Ceramics, feels like a quiet conversation rather than a statement. Curated by Jason Yang, the show leans on ceramics and illustration to talk about memory, self-acceptance and the value of taking one’s time. Titled Fire Me Slowly, the work reflects Krittin’s own path as an LGBTQ individual, shaped by gradual understanding rather than sudden revelation. Ceramic figures appear soft yet stubborn, joined by monster-like characters that refuse neat labels or fixed identities. They exist comfortably, without apology or explanation. Nothing here asks to be hurried. Growth unfolds at its own speed, gently and without pressure. The exhibition suggests that arriving is overrated anyway. Staying present, slightly unfinished and fully yourself, might be the point worth holding onto.

January 10-February 9. Free. GalileOasis Gallery, 9am-8pm