World’s Durian Festival 2008, Chanthaburi Province, Thailand

Held at a time of the year when the fruit crops are at their best, visitors can enjoy a great range of succulent fruit that have been grown in Thailand’s eastern provinces which have collectively earned the nickname as the 'fruit bowl of Thailand'.

The annual Chanthaburi Fruit Festival held at the Chanthaburi Sports Stadium offers a fantastic selection of fruits to try with favourites including sweet rambutans, pomelos and the unusual durian fruit. There are prizes for such things as the best fruit display and the best tasting fruit and there is a full entertainment programme on offer too.

Chanthaburi is the durian capital of the world in terms of production, with the largest concentration of durian orchards on the planet — over 137,000 hectares, producing about half of Thailand's entire durian crop.
 

Each year at harvest time Chanthaburi town has a colorful 10-day fruit fair and celebration at the time of peak fruit harvest season. There are traditional fruit competitions among farmers, arts and crafts displays, entertainers, sporting events, a temporary marketplace of all kinds of things (including of course much fine tropical fruit), and much more, but the highlight - is always the fantastic parade on the opening morning.

If you've been to or seen photos of Thai temples or the Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thai people love to make colossally intricate and flamboyant monuments of creative artistic genius. These vibrantly colorful parade floats are perishable wonders of the world, awesome scenes and statues and designs all decorated almost entirely with thousands of tropical fruits and many vegetables too. Seeing these parade floats alone would be worth a trip to Thailand!

 Contact:

TAT Central Region Office : Region 4 (Rayong)
Tel : 0 3865 5420-1
Office of Administration, Chanthaburi
Tel : 0 3931 1001