Koh Samui Events Calendar

Koh Samui plays host to a number of notable annual local festivals and ex-pat events, which are open for everyone to enjoy –residents, the Thai community and holiday makers can all participate, or spectate.  

Songkran 

The Thai New Year, is celebrated on the full moon in mid-April. It's a huge holiday for the whole country and a lot of fun on Koh Samui. Whilst Thais observe many religious and family duties around this time, to the farang it can look like one giant party, with a huge communal water fight being the order of the day. Trucks drive around the ring road with barrels of water and passengers armed with super-soaker water pistols – much music and merriment ensues and everyone gets sopping wet, covered in talc and sporting massive grins – unbeatable fun. 

Koh Samui International Regatta

In the first week of June, the annual Koh Samui Regatta is becoming a popular fixture on the international yachting calendar. Samui is buzzing with maritime gossip throughout the month, and the island's clubs, restaurants and bars host regatta parties for sailors and spectators alike, ensuring that the Regatta is one of the main social events of the year.  

Koh Samui International Film festival (Aug 14-16 2009)

The Samui Film Festival grew out of a pure love for meaningful independent film making. Additionally, we are world travelers who rejoice in the cross-cultural expansion that subtly transforms all those who wander far and wide, and we embrace film as a medium for this soul-level evolution.

2009 marks SFF's premiere events and we are delighted to celebrate with you by sharing this year's roster of inspiring and exquisite hand-selected films from around the world with the local community as well as travelers to this beautiful tropical island. The Samui Film Festival, to be held 14-16 August 2009, is the sister event of the Phangan Film Festival (PFF). Following PFF's very successful first two years, the festival was invited to tour so that these important, timely, and diverse independent films could be seen by the largest audience possible. Festival founder and director Julien Balmer agreed, and SFF was born!

The festival themes are NATURE and SPIRIT, two widely cherished and intimately related subjects which bear increasing relevance for all of us, both at the local and planetary levels.

We hope that this initiative will profoundly touch festival-goers, stimulate thoughtful reflection on our own ways of life, and help bring about appropriate changes in attitude and responsible action. For the community, we wish to open the doors to spiritual activism and ultimately contribute to the harmonious development of Koh Samui for all of its inhabitants and visitors.

Samui Mala

From 19-27 September Samui will celebrate all things green and healthy with a festival of events collectively called Samui Mala Festival Week. The week-long festival will take place at various venues around the island and includes something for everyone in our community: There will be children and chilled beers, athletes and artists, divers and developers, healers and hoteliers, yogis, environmentalists and musicians.

Come and join and in-joy!!!

Loy Kratong

In mid-November, Loi Kratong is the beautiful ceremonial festival of lights. Small floating offerings made from flowers, leaves and candles are set off to float on the rivers and ocean. This is said to symbolize, amongst other things, the sending away of negativity from the previous year and placing a strand of hair, a fingernail, and nine one-baht coins, attracts good luck for the coming year. The beaches of Bohput, Chaweng and Lamai are all busy around nightfall with people floating offerings, and the bobbing ocean-bound candles, combined with the air-borne lanterns dotting the sky create an enchanting scene.