The Bun Bang Fai Rocket Festival

Bun Bang Fai falls at the end of the dry season, when the north-east needs rain and the planting cannot start without it. The custom sends rockets up to remind the sky god Phaya Thaen that the fields are waiting. Village teams pack tubes with powder, mount them on long tails, decorate them with naga heads and carry them through town on floats with dancing and drums the day before. Then the tubes go onto the launch rails and the crowd watches for altitude and for the line of the plume. Teams whose rocket fails traditionally end up thrown in the mud. Yasothon holds the largest gathering, but dozens of towns run their own.

What you actually see

• The decorated floats - rockets carried through town with naga heads and drums.
• The launch rails - the firing frames and the queue of village teams.
• The smoke trails - judged on height and on the line of the plume.
• The mud - the traditional fate of the teams whose rocket fails.

When to go

May, with the exact weekend varying by town and Yasothon usually taking the middle of the month. It is the hottest, most humid stretch of the year in the north-east, so plan around the middle of the day. Book a room in Yasothon well ahead, or stay in Ubon Ratchathani and drive across for the launches.

Honest expectations

It is loud, chaotic and very hot, and the drinking is heavy from the morning onward. Home-built rockets do occasionally fail badly, so stay behind the marked lines and take the marshals seriously. Nothing runs to a published timetable, English is scarce, and the parade day and the launch day are frequently confused in the listings.

Nearby

Ubon Ratchathani and the Mun river towns lie south-east of Yasothon.