This blog is all about the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival 2026. I was fortunate enough to visit this festival in 2025. It had been on my bucket list for so many years. It was a dream come true to be about to visit this event. But it wasn’t what it was hyped up to be all about! I wanted to share with you everything you need to know about this festival, including all the key factors to consider when planning your trip here.
So what is the Lantern Festival? Yi Peng is the release of sky lanterns, mainly in Northern Thailand/ Chiang Mai, and Loy Krathong is the release of decorated baskets, krathongs, in rivers. Both happen on the full moon of the 12th Lunar month. This festival symbolises spiritual cleansing, releasing misfortunes, and honouring Buddha with light, creating a dreamy scene of lanterns filling the night sky and floating on water. It’s important for gratitude, renewal, and letting go of misfortune, honouring spiritual beliefs by offering light to Buddha and water spirits while making wishes for good fortune and a new beginning.
Every year, the festival is held on different dates; in 2026, it will be held on November 24-25, 2026. The festival that I will be continuing to talk about is the Yi Peng Lantern Festival in Chiang Mai. You can buy tickets here.
Chiang Mai Lantern Festival 2026
Festival Dates & Duration
As above, the 2026 festival dates are held on the 24th and 25th of November 2026.
The best time to arrive is the earliest time possible! And it might seem crazy to do this, but honestly, our experience was horrible trying to get to the festival. Whichever time the buses start running from, make sure you are there for it. On the tickets, it made out that there were buses running every 5 mins and it takes around 40 mins to get to the venue. We waited in line for the bus for over an hour, and then to get to the venue it took us 2 hours!!!
We didn’t want to have to go too early and wait around all afternoon waiting for the lantern festival. But now that we know that going later is absolute chaos, we would have preferred to have gone earlier and enjoy waiting at the festival instead of the bus. The earliest bus goes at 1 pm, and you will want to be on it. Catching a bus from 3 pm or later is when the majority of the people turn up, and it is way too busy and gets very unorganised.
Chiang Mai Lantern Festival 2026
What Happens During the Festival?
Activities & Stalls
Before the release of the lanterns at 8 pm, there are activities and art stalls that you can join in and wander through beforehand. They have traditional crafts you can learn about and understand the culture behind these arts and crafts in Thailand.
Dinner
From 5 pm – 7 pm, the buffet dinner service (included in VIP tickets) will open, so go earlier rather than later. They ran out of food towards the end, and the lines were 40 mins long as everyone arrived around a similar time due to the traffic.
Photo Opportunities
There are plenty of opportunities/ areas for photos around the area. As you walk around, you’ll see so many beautiful backdrops, especially colourful ones for photos. If you go earlier, definitely go and take all your photos first to avoid the crowds.
Performances
From about 7:30 pm – 8 pm, there will be Thai performances on the main stage around the temple and through the seats. The setup of the seating happens in a circle around the centre stage/ temple. They have dancers and performers walking down the main rows towards the stage. It’s beautiful to watch and is a beautiful way
Release of Lanterns
At 8 pm, the lanterns begin to be released. The volunteers will come around with a lighter and light the burning stick on fire for you. It’s best if you hold off on lighting yours straight away. Look up and see the fireworks with the other lanterns first, trust me, that this is the best way to enjoy the start of it. Lighting the lanterns themselves can be stressful. It’s a two-person job to hold it up and allow the heat to open up the lantern and get it to float.
It can be quite dangerous too, as lots of them caught fire and had to be extinguished. Some even caught fire and were floating at a height level, which meant you had to try to dodge some of them. Included in the ticket are two lanterns each; this is needed because my first lantern caught fire. We also had a few empty seats around us, which meant we could take their lanterns and let them go as well. The whole release of the lanterns went on for about 25 minutes, and at the end, you could see them falling from the sky.
Chiang Mai Lantern Festival 2026
How to Attend the Lantern Release Events
How tickets work
You can book your tickets exactly 12 months out from the dates of the lantern festival. They have a range of different ticket options with different packages included. Here is what all the different tickets include:
- Standard Ticket: Standard Seats, Transfer with Songthaew (Red cab with roof) and dinner 4,900.00฿ ($133.40 USD and $205.80 AUD)
- VIP: VIP Seat, A/C vehicle, Transfer from Meeting point and dinner 6,500.00฿ ($195 – $205 USD and about $300 – $315 AUD).
- PREMIUM: Premium Seats, Transfer with A/C Vehicle from the meeting point and dinner 7,000.00฿ ($220-$225 USD and around $330-$340 AUD).
- Gold Ticket: Gold Seats, A/C vehicle, Transfer from Meeting point and dinner 8,900.00฿ ($283.09 USD and around $423.00 AUD).
- Platinum: Platinum Ticket, A/C vehicle Transfer from Meeting point 11,900.00฿ ($377 to $380 USD and around $560 to $570 AUD).
- Elite: Elite Seats, A/C vehicle Transfer from Meeting point, dinner and Best View at Release lanterns with risen stage 15,900.00฿ ($490 – $508 USD and around $750 – $760 AUD).
When to book
Ideally, I would be booking as soon as I can. Last year, the tickets sold out quite quickly; this year, however, there still seem to be a few tickets available. As soon as you know if you are going to Thailand and if you will be in Chiang Mai on these dates, is the best time to book. They will sell out.
Ethical and safety considerations
Because I love nature and the environment, I did a lot of research into this festival, as there is a negative impact this event can have on the environment. This ticketed event is the only one in Thailand that looks after the environment during this festival period.
Many local lantern releases and smaller festivals don’t have set-ups to reduce their environmental damage. For example, once they float off into the sky, they just let them go, and this leads to the lanterns being left in the wild, or if still alight, it could cause fires.
With the Yi Peng Lantern Festival in Chiang Mai, they have volunteers who collect all the lanterns as they drop directly below the event, and if any get lost or fall outside the event, they pay the locals to collect them and dispose of them correctly. They are also all made from sustainable natural materials and are designed to burn out before landing back on the ground.
Chiang Mai Lantern Festival 2026
How to Get Around During the Festival
If I haven’t said it enough times already, get to the meeting point as early as you can! This will save you time and money, prices for grabs and tuk-tuks were higher by 3 pm, which was the busiest time for people to get to the meeting point. It also took a lot longer than normal to get a ride.
Getting to the festival is all organised by the venue/ event, depending on which ticket you purchased. If there seems to be a lot of traffic and you see people starting to hop off the transport and walk in… FOLLOW THEM. We stayed on the bus right until the end because we had no idea what was happening, and it took us 30 mins longer than if we had just gotten off and walked the rest of the way.
Once the event has finished, it is absolute chaos trying to work out how to get a ride back into town. There are no grabs or anything like that, so you have to rely on the buses or songthaews that you came in on. Everyone was going to the same drop-off point, but none of the transport seemed to be going there. It started raining, and it was a disaster; everyone was just trying to catch a ride from any transport they could find. We found a songthaew that ended up going to our drop off point, it took about 1 hour and 2o minutes to reach the point with all the traffic. It was the most uncomfortable ride, but we made it there safely.
What to Wear & Pack
My number one priority when it comes to events like this is what is going to look good in photos? This is because the photographer in me always thinks about photos first and comfort second. If you are thinking about getting nice photos of yourself with the lanterns. I definitely recommend wearing white or light colours, as it stands out more than dark colours during the evening. I would also avoid wearing warm tones like red or orange. The lanterns have warm tones in the photos, and you don’t want to look too orange.
If you like, take a backpack and pack spare clothes, if that would make it better for you to be comfortable as well, especially if you are there all afternoon/ evening. Wearing enclosed shoes is a must to keep your feet dry and clean, but also less chance of them being burned in case part of an on-fire lantern touches them.
Bring a poncho too in case the weather turns and it starts raining. You can never be too prepared in Thailand when it comes to the weather. Definitely pack your camera and extra snacks/ water while you wait for the lanterns too incase the traffic is insane. Or they run out of food at the buffet.
Travel Tips for 2026 Festival-Goers
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How to avoid crowds: It’s pretty much impossible to avoid the crowds at this festival, but if you do get there early, you will most likely get to experience all the activities, photo ops and dinner before the majority of festival goers arrive.
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Best times for photos: Depending on what you want to take photos of, I would say earlier the better. especially for all the cool walkways and photo places around the festival, to avoid getting people in your photos. As for the release of the lanterns, take photos first with the fireworks and then light your own lantern.
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Environmental impact & responsible participation: Please make sure that you don’t leave any rubbish behind, or if you are going to do a free lantern festival, ask what happens to those lanterns afterwards. It’s a beautiful event, but we still need to put the environment first and look after it.
Chiang Mai Lantern Festival 2026
So, is the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival 2026 worth going to? It depends on why you want to go. For me, it was because I wanted to photograph the event and capture beautiful images. And the lanterns were beautiful, and I got magical photos, but would I go again? Probably not, I felt like it was very overpriced. It was so unorganised and chaotic that it ruined most of the experience for me. However, knowing what I know now, if I were to get there early and slowly enjoy the whole afternoon. I probably would have loved it so much more. Nonetheless, it was still a dream come true and a magical one at that. I hope this blog post helps you prepare for the Chiang Mai Lantern Festival 2026!