Thailand Week, organized by the de facto Thai embassy in Taiwan, is to be held from Wednesday next week to the end of the month, featuring a concert, a food festival and cultural events, the Southeast Asian country’s top representative said on Thursday.
Thailand Week is to be held just after Songkran, also known as the Water Festival, which marks the start of Thailand’s traditional New Year, Thailand Trade and Economic Office executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong told a news conference.
The office holds a similar festival every April, but the scale of the event has expanded this year, said Boonsatheanwong, who took up the post in February.
Photo: CNA
The week-long festival is to begin on Wednesday next week with a concert at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei by the Princess Galyani Vadhana Institute of Music Youth Orchestra from Bangkok, he said.
The concert is to start at 7pm and is to mark the 72nd birthday of Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn Phra Vajiraklaochaoyuhua, he said.
The king’s birthday is on July 28, but events are held throughout the year to celebrate it, he added.
Six songs written by former Thai king Bhumibol Adulyadej are to be performed by the string orchestra, as well as other famous Thai songs and Taiwanese pieces, he said.
Following the concert, which Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) is to attend, a Thai food festival is to be held at the Mandarin Oriental Taipei from Friday next week to April 28 at the hotel’s Thai restaurant, he said.
A Thai festival is to run on the same dates on the fourth floor of Taipei Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13, Boonsatheanwong said, adding that it would feature daily musical and dance performances, as well as Thai massage and cooking demonstrations.
The envoy said that the festival is to promote exchanges between the people of Thailand and Taiwan.
More information about Thailand Week is available on the office’s Facebook page: www.fb.com/TTEOTAIPEI.
Boonsatheanwong did not give a direct answer when asked if his country’s visa exemption program for holders of Taiwanese passports would be extended.
The program expires on May 10.
“Don’t worry, it will be announced soon,” he said through an interpreter.
Thailand’s government in October last year announced that Taiwan passport holders would be granted visa-free stays of 30 days until May 10, because the Southeast Asian country was seeking to draw more tourists as the high season approached.
Boonsatheanwong told reporters that Thailand is one of the most popular tourist destinations for Taiwanese, with 750,000 visiting last year.
The number of visitors from Taiwan would surpass 1 million this year, he said.
Boonsatheanwong is a former deputy director-general of Thailand’s Department of Consular Affairs. He has also been posted in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
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