Yasothon’s famous bungfai festival starts today

[Thaivisa News]

Yasothon:- The Yasothon provincial administration urged Thai and foreign tourists to visit and enjoy the annual bungfai festival that begun Friday. The festival will continue until Sunday.

Bungfai are traditional bamboo rockets that Isaan or northeastern people fire in the sixth month of the lunar calendar to worship Phaya Thaen or a god of rains, hoping he would bless them with abundant rains for their crops.

Yasothon Governor Prawat Thithakaew said the makers of bungfai will set up their stages on Chaeng Sanit Road on Friday and the road will turn into the bungfai road.

The makers will perform Isaan traditional dances and display their bungfai rockets. There will also be a contest of Isaan poem reading and Bungfai Beauty Queen contest on Friday. Visitors can also shop for goods and souvenirs on the bungfai road.

On Saturday, the makers will parade their bungfai rockets in beautiful processions with traditional dancers. The governor said more than 50 bungfai groups will contest in the beautiful parade. The most beautiful one will be awarded with a trophy granted by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Prawat said the parade will start at 10 am in front of the Mueang Yasothon district office. This year, residents of Chichibu, Japan, will join the parade to display their culture in a cultural exchange program, the governor said.

On Sunday, the bungfai rockets makers will fire their rockets in a contest to find one which one will go the highest in each category of bungfai saen and bangfai larn. The bungfai firing contest will start at 8 am. The bungfai saen has 120 kilograms of explosives while the bungfai larn has 1,200 kgs.

Prawat said more than 60 bungfai saen and bungfai larn rockets will enter the firing contest.

[khwaibah]

Its that time again for mother nature to take over for birth control as people get killed and injured at theses doings. I'll take a rain check.

[Issangeorge]

One of the reasons I love Thailand, is they allow a little insanity. If I wanted to live in a sane country, where people could take no risks and had no freedoms, I would have stayed in Canada. The best Bonfai, is the one at Ban Kut Wa on highway 12 about 7 kms east of Kuchinarai. It is this year May 16 and 17, with the parade on the 16th, and the rockets on the 17th. However they aren't really rockets, they are more like circular flying saucers, that spin and gradually rise up. When I first saw them about 10 years ago, they would rise up, until they ran out of fuel, and then where they would fall, no one knew. Very exiting, however I guess commonsense prevailed, and now after the engines or rockets stop a parachute is deployed, not nearly as exiting. I never heard of anyone been injured from one, but for good or bad Thailand is becoming more and more westernized every year.

Edited May 8, 2015 by Issangeorge

[Tywais]

The best Bonfai, is the one at Ban Kut Wa on highway 12 about 7 kms east of Kuchinarai.

Pretty remarkable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXLiajnu4ts

[quandow]

Now THAT was pretty f4cking cool!

[Longtooth]

Don't stand too close! Seriously. They are not designed and built by "Space-X".

[Nick167]

I look forward to read about the casualties by the projectiles built by the upcountry buffoons!

[malct]

We are in yasothon for the festival and I have to say, the noise from the speakers is way to loud, The wife and i called into the English restaurant for a bite to eat on Friday night and the tin roof was pounding and I would not be surprised that my earing hasn't been effected. We did manage to walk down the main street but we were back in the hotel by 9pm due to the noise. We really enjoyed Saturday morning with the different teams performing in the main arena. We are giving the main street a miss due to the loud music, not that we are killjoys, just I don't want to loose my earing. Looking forward to the rocket firing tomorrow.