Chiang Mai Flower Festival 2027

The festival runs Friday to Sunday, traditionally on the first weekend of February, so 5–7 February 2027 is the likely date for the 50th festival, with the parade on Saturday 6 February. Treat that as a working date, not a booking date. Chiang Mai City Municipality announces each year's festival only a few weeks ahead, and it has moved the date twice in a row. In 2025 it pushed the festival back a week, to 7–9 February, because nationwide provincial elections fell on the parade day, and in 2026, a general-election year, it ran on 13–15 February.

If the parade is the reason for your trip, book a refundable room for the first weekend and watch the municipality's Facebook page, or Chiang Mai City Life, through January. The gardens in the park stay up all three days, so a Sunday arrival still gets you the displays.

The parade is the big event. On Saturday morning the floats, covered in tens of thousands of flowers, set off from Nawarat Bridge on the Ping River at about 07:30–08:00 and travel west along Tha Phae Road to Tha Phae Gate, then around the moat to Buak Haad Public Park. Between the floats come school marching bands, drum groups, and dancers in Lanna costume, and the performers hand flowers to the crowd. The floats move slowly and stop often, so the whole procession takes a few hours to pass. The festival also crowns a Flower Festival Queen, and the candidates ride on the floats.

For a front-row spot, be on the route by 07:00. The stretch of Tha Phae Road near Nawarat Bridge sees the floats first and early. Tha Phae Gate is the busiest and most photogenic place to watch, with performances in the square, so arrive earliest there. The moat side near the park is quieter, and if you watch near the end you can walk straight into the gardens when the last float has passed.

For all three days, Buak Haad Public Park becomes an open-air flower show. In 2026 it held more than 170,000 flowers of 52 varieties, laid out in themed gardens with a flower tunnel, tulips, hydrangeas and a main pavilion of orchids honoring the late Queen Sirikit, with lanterns lit after dark. The classic flowers are the north's cool-season blooms, yellow and white chrysanthemums and the damask rose. Around the gardens are stalls selling plants, seedlings and local products, and there's food all weekend.

Go in the late afternoon, when it's cooler and the lanterns come on, or early on Friday before the weekend crowds. On Sunday, the Walking Street market starts at Tha Phae Gate at 16:00, so you can do the park in the afternoon and walk across the Old City for dinner at the stalls.

February is cool season in the north. Days average 33°C and nights 17°C, so mornings on the parade route need a light layer, and it rains on about 2 days in the month. The catch is smoke. Chiang Mai's crop-burning season runs from mid-February to April, and the air often starts to haze over by the middle of the month, so the first weekend is usually clearer than the second. Check an air-quality app before you go, and carry a mask if the readings climb.

Stay in the Old City or just east of it, near Tha Phae Gate, so you can walk to the parade. Roads along the route close on Saturday morning, and a taxi won't get you close. The south side of the Old City, around Chiang Mai Gate, is a few minutes' walk from Buak Haad park. February is high season in Chiang Mai anyway, and festival weekend fills the Old City, so book early and choose a room you can cancel until the dates are confirmed.