Each year, the colorful Chiang Mai Flower Festival is held on the first weekend of February. At the end of the cool season is when these flowers in Thailand are at their best, with the high point of the festival being a colorful parade of magnificently decorated floats held on the morning of Saturday. The floats are literally covered in hundreds of beautiful flowers, with beauty queens from northern Thailand sitting atop them. The public gardens and their breathtaking flowerbeds are another main attraction of the festival that make it worth seeing, whose color and elegant displays are maintained until the end of Sunday. The festival also draws people who are looking for a superb culinary experience featuring the flavors of Thailand, as well as the opportunity to view the cultural performances that are featured in this annual festival. The exotic orchids, blooms, and flowering plants make up the showcase that both home and garden lovers can appreciate during the temperate cool season of the valley.

The grand parade that is the main highlight of the Chiang Mai Festival attracts many organizations and sponsoring companies to beautify the floats with many decorations that are elaborate and breathtaking, capturing the imagination of spectators with their beauty and vivid colors, and sending an important eco-tourism message in the process. Lining up alongside the train station to Narawatt bridge, the Thailand Flower Festival parade starts at 9am, going down along Thapae road, and then turning left, following the moat to Suan Buak Haad City Park. The parade, comprised of the colorful floats, northern Thai beauty queens, and the hill tribes, moves at a slow pace, and stops every now and then to give spectators and a fair share of tourists the opportunity to take photographs. The magnificent floats are then placed on display at the Suan Buak Haad City Park, and a celebration begins to choose a new Festival Flower Queen for the year.

One can visit the elaborate displays made by landscape specialists for the viewing benefit of the public at the Suan Buak Haad City Park, after watching Thailand’s version of the Rose Bowl Parade. From the strident red of the poinsettias, and electric orange and lilac of the bougainvilleas, one will find the city completely awash in vibrant colors that reflect the entire spectrum of the rainbow throughout the Thailand Flower Festival. Petunias can also be found in a variety of colors ranging from pink, white, and purple. The entire festival lasts for the entire weekend, turning the city into one giant party, and a major holiday destination for anyone who plans to visit Thailand during this particular time of the year.