The annual Colors of the East festival street fair blooms on Pattaya Beach Feb. 26-March 1 with this year’s theme being “Flowers of the Beach.”
Provincial officials from Chonburi, Rayong, Trat and Chantaburi announced the eighth-annual festival Feb. 5 in Bangkok with deejay Ekachai Uesangkomsat and video deejay Nathaweeranuch Thongmee acting as emcees.
Organized each year by the provinces of Chonburi, Rayong, Chanthaburi and Trat to promote eastern tourism, the event features 200 booths selling food, locally made goods, tourist souvenirs and other inexpensive merchandise.
Chonburi Governor Khomsan Ekachai (center) announces this year’s Colors of the East festival will be held on Pattaya Beach Feb. 26-March 1.
Each year also brings massive traffic problems, which authorities thought could be solved by moving the fair to Jomtien Beach in 2013. But the festival floundered in that location, prompting the return to Pattaya last year.
The festival also will feature a contest for dresses made of flowers offering more than 200,000 baht in prizes. All of Beach Road will be decorated with all types of flowers intended as backdrops for tourist photos. A parade will open the event Feb. 26 at 5 p.m.
“The event aims to bolster tourism in the region, publicize the region’s tourism to create work for people to reduce the unemployment problem, as well as create an effective tourism connection in the region,” said Chonburi Governor Khomsan Ekachai.
Colors of the East also features concerts from Kangsom of “The Star” TV show, Lula, Season Four, and Biw Kanlayanee. There will be cultural performances, lucky draws for shoppers buying 3,000 baht or more in merchandise, free Flowers on the Beach T-shirts, and gifts of small plants for photographers posting their pictures on social media with the hashtag “#ColorsOfTheEast”.
