Pride in Bangkok: your ultimate guide to events, parties and more

No one throws a show quite like a drag queen, and Bangkok is about to host an entire nation’s worth. DRAG BANGKOK Festival lands at Parc Paragon. This isn’t just a show – it’s a gathering. A full-throttle congregation of Thailand’s boldest performers, backed by city authorities, cultural powerhouses and a drag community that doesn’t do things by halves. There’ll be stages, yes, but also masterclasses, workshops, glitter-flecked side quests and enough lashes to fan a small country. Evening affairs bring even more drama. May 30-Jun 1. Free. Parc Paragon, 5pm onwards (midday-10pm on Jun 1)

The exhibition unfolds not with noise but with stillness, asking viewers to unlearn the instinct to categorise. Across a sequence of photographs, identity is presented not as fact but as feeling – shifting, unresolved, defiantly uncoded. What begins as a quiet meditation soon reveals itself as a layered refusal. The binary – once a seemingly stable structure – is dismantled image by image. Here, the influence of digital language is clear: 0 and 1 reimagined, not as limits but as endless combinations. Bodies blur, gazes linger, definitions fall away. Some portraits are bold, others barely there. All resist the neatness of X or Y. Rather than offering answers, the exhibition suggests another way of looking – one that doesn’t require certainty, doesn’t expect sameness and has no interest in choosing sides. May 1-29. Free. Ming Art Space, open Fri-Sun, 10am-7pm

Another Pride, another reason to sweat glitter. YUMM is back – and turning one. A year ago, it emerged like a fever dream in fishnets, hoping to carve out something real, messy and gloriously inclusive. No velvet ropes, no forced cool, just a space where misfits, baddies and babies could dance without apology. Now, twelve months and countless outfit changes later, it returns with hips swinging and speakers trembling. This time, they’re calling in reinforcements: enter @ihatekilimi, straight from Australia's ballroom scene, where walking is warfare and basslines bruise. Expect attitude. Expect volume. Expect a slap of something that smells suspiciously like freedom. Jun 7. B400 via here and B500 at the door after 10pm. Blaqlyte Rover, 9pm onwards

This year, Warehouse transforms into a sanctuary where love is loud, bodies move freely and every identity finds its voice. It’s not merely a party; it’s a statement, an embrace, a refusal to shrink. The night pulses with the raw energy of Non Non Non, the city’s iconic DJ collective, spinning tracks that refuse to let you stand still. Between the beats, drag royalty takes centre stage – Sriracha Hotsauce, a legend in her own right, alongside the electrifying Gigi Ferocious. Both deliver performances dripping with charisma and wild, unstoppable spirit. This isn’t just for the usual suspects. It welcomes all – gender, sexuality, or identity dissolving into one vast celebration of freedom. Whether you show up dripping in sequins or in quiet solidarity, there’s a place here for every shade of you. Jun 14. B300-550 via here and B800 at the door. The Warehouse Talat Noi. 7pm onwards

In its sophomore year, the Bangkok Pride Forum returns under the theme Born This Way, not just as a slogan but as a call to carve out space – real space – for vulnerability, dialogue and unapologetic self-worth. Less conference, more collective reckoning, the forum sprawls across six urgent fronts: economics, healthcare, tech, education, human rights and the environment. This year, THACCA (Thailand Creative & Cultural Agency) joins the conversation with a session on soft power – not the buzzword, but the quiet revolution that shapes minds, moods and entire systems. May 30-Jun 1. Check all the places and timing here.

Celebrate selfhood not with a whisper but a month-long playlist of curated happenings that twist tradition into something far queerer. W Bangkok isn’t just hosting Pride – it’s composing a symphony of sass, spirit and subversion. Between June 7-30, expect a culinary pas de deux by Chef Ploy and Chef Joe at Paii restaurant, where Thai classics get reimagined with a modern wink. If exclusivity’s your poison, Marriott Bonvoy Moments on June 7 delivers a mix of workshop, light lunch and private dinner that feels less hotel and more hush-hush supper club. Later that night, the W Lounge goes rogue with Pour for Pride – one guest mixologist, unlimited flamboyance and cocktails served with a wink. June 14, Thai artist Atom Prakorn turns therapy into art – literally – with a creative workshop aimed at untangling minds and loosening hearts. Then, on June 28, it’s time to lace up (or slip on something impractical) for the Pride Fun Run – a vertical jog that’s equal parts cardio and catwalk. Check W Bangkok for more details. Jun 7-30. W Bangkok.

It’s the night before Pride and somewhere between chaos and charm lies a sapphic prelude to the main event. There’s no script here – just dares pinned to a wall, glances exchanged across dimly lit corners, and the kind of shopping that feels like flirting with fabric. This isn’t about polished declarations or rainbow platitudes. It’s a warm-up for the bold, the curious, the soft-hearted, and the sharply dressed. Whether you’re bringing a date or dancing solo with intent, every beat pushes closer to that moment – the kiss that launches Pride Month with the sort of softness only queers can make electric. May 31. B350 via here and B600 at the door. Cul de Sac, 8pm onwards

The first group exhibition in Bangkok to centre queer artists from Myanmar – a collective debut that feels less like a splashy arrival and more like a long-overdue exhale. Here, the works don’t shout, they ache. Across video, sculpture, performance and still image, the artists trace a line between leaving and belonging, mapping the emotional weight of homesickness, adaptation and identity in cities that offer both promise and dissonance. Some left for love, others for labour or liberty, but all carry the imprint of elsewhere. Most have sidestepped the usual white-cube trajectory – cutting their teeth in fashion editorials, commercial sets or underground scenes – and yet, the result is anything but amateur. This is not an exhibition that begs for legitimacy. It asserts its presence with quiet defiance, like a diary left open in a room you weren’t supposed to enter. Jun 7-Aug 9. Free. SAC Gallery