Taste of Thailand at 2019 Thai Food and Cultural Festival

Posted on 18 September, 2019

The Royal Thai Embassy in Canberra will open its doors this Sunday for its popular annual Thai Food and Cultural Festival.

The event has been held in Canberra for the past 16 years, and is a chance for Canberra residents and the Thai community living in Canberra and nearby cities to come together, learn more about Thai culture, and enjoy delicious Thai food, in a fun environment.

Started as part of Windows to the World, which allows Canberrans to see behind the gates of the capital’s embassies and high commissions, the festival has garnered quite the reputation for its authentic food offerings and cultural performance. And this year is no exception. Festivalgoers can sample lunch or dinner from 12 Canberra and Sydney food stalls.

But if you’ve got a sweet tooth, there’ll be seven dedicated dessert stalls for all your sugar hit needs.

You can even win a gift voucher to buy food within the event, one of several lucky draw prizes.

Whether free or not, grab the popular dishes of papaya salad, mango sticky rice, and Massaman beef curry, and wash it down with the famous Thai beer, also on offer.

This year, Canberrans will also be able to experience a taste of Thailand with the special cultural performances.

Pull up a chair and enjoy performances of Muay Thai (or Thai boxing) and Thai dancing, a reed organ show by Pongsaporn Upani from Khon Kaen Province of Thailand, The Finale live band, and tunes by singer Keng Tachaya, who was the winner of 14 gold medals from the World Championship of Performing Arts in 2016.

Media personality and occasional film star, Daniel Fraser, who has lived in Thailand since the mid-1990s and speaks Thai fluently, will MC the stage.

The family-friendly event also has a dedicated “kids corner” featuring face painting, drawing, and gift bags.

A Brisbane-based Thai artist Bundit Puangthong, whose dreamlike bright artworks has brought him acclaim, will also be painting a mural that aspiring young artists can be inspired by.

There’ll be traditional arts and handicrafts and Thai food products to buy, a nylon flowers class, a Thai batik workshop, Thai massage, a tourism showcase, paintings by Sydney based Thai artist Nukoon Panyadee, and an exhibition on a special low-grain, low-GI Thai rice.

The rice is from a farm in northern Thailand that was flooded and destroyed by the government’s efforts to rescue local youth football team the Wild Boars and their assistant coach who were trapped deep inside a cave underneath a mountain in 2018.

And while the popular event attracts crowds each year, The Royal Thai Embassy is seeking feedback from the Canberra community to help make it even better.

Your comments may even win you a trip to Thailand—anyone who fills out the survey goes into a prize draw, drawn in the late afternoon, with first prize a return ticket from Sydney to Bangkok with Thai Airways.

And even if you don’t win that airline ticket from Sydney to Bangkok, a few nights’ accommodation at hotels will be also up for grabs.

It’s not quite Bangkok, but with a Thai Massaman beef curry and a Thai beer from room service, you’re almost there.

the essentials

What: Thai Food and Cultural Festival
Where: Royal Thai Embassy, 111 Empire Circuit, Yarralumla
When: Sunday 22 September, from 10.30 am-5 pm
Facebook: Royal Thai Embassy Canberra

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