Thai festival in Silver Spring

[LizG]

Does anyone know anything about this? I think it is to celebrate the New Year. I've looked for more information online. All I can find dates back to 1999. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[little audrey]

Bumping this because I was at Bangkok Garden in Columbia and saw a flyer taped to the door advertising a Thai festival at Wat Thai next Sunday, Sept. 20. Free admission, and of course FOOD. Does anyone have more info? I guess it isn't as big as Songkran but wondering if it is still worth checking out.

[comestibles]

http://www.watthaidc.org/watdc_2552/s...

[LizG]

I wanted to thank everyone for sharing information about the Wat Thai event. Such a closely held Washington DC secret it is. We went (around 1pm), we ate(mmm), and we enjoyed ourselves. In fact, this just might become a yearly event for us.

I used to live in Chicago. What I loved most about living there was the various ethnic neighborhoods. It is nice to know you can find a bit of that here too.

This all inspires a new thread...DC-Baltimore area best kept secret festivals/events...

[Minger]

Thanks to the posters on this board who guided me to this festival.

It was a blast and a true taste of Thai culture, totally unlike the diluted festivals we see too commonly in downtown DC. This festival is likely the closest to the Anthony Bourdain / Andrew Zimmern south east Asian culinary adventure we will ever see in our area.

[skatewash]

Minger,

Glad you liked it! I like to say it's the best festival in the area that nobody knows about. Obviously as there are thousands of people there every year it's certainly not the case that nobody knows about it, and the Thais community certainly seems to know about it, but if you're looking for publicity or actually any information on the web (at least in English) it can be a challenge to find it for this festival.

If you close your eyes as you stand in the middle of the crowd, the wonderful smells of the food, Thai music in the background, and the beautiful sounds of Thai voices, can almost make you believe, if only for an instant, that you're in Thailand.

Songkran is celebrated at other DC area wats in April. For example:

Sunday, 27 April 2008 at

Wat Pa Nanachart
40539 John Mosby Hwy.
Aldie, VA 20105
Tel: [phone]

There may be a Songkran celebration at one of the other wats in the area next weekend (4/20/08):

WAT THAI OF WASHINGTON, D.C. (celebrated on 4/13/08)

13440 LAYHILL ROAD
SILVER SPRING, MD 20906
TEL : [phone]
FAX : [phone]
URL : http://www.watthaidc.org
E-Mail : [e-mail]
(Thai Bhikkhus Council

)

WAT TUMMAPRATEIP VIRGINIA-WASHINGTON D.C. (not sure when Songkran is celebrated here, not being able to read Thai is a severe handicap)

36 FARMINGTON ROAD., W.
ACCOKEEK, MD 20607
TEL : [phone]
FAX : [phone]
URL : http://www.tummaprateip.iirt.net
E-Mail : [e-mail]
(Dhammayut Order

)

WAT YARNNARANGSEE BUDDHIST MONASTERY (held 4/6/08, we missed it!)

22147 CEDAR GREEN ROAD
STERLING, VA 20164-5332
TEL : [phone]
FAX : [phone]
URL : http://www.watyarn.com
E-Mail : [e-mail]
(Dhammayut Order

)

WAT PAH SANTHIDHAMA (to be celebrated on 4/20/08)

14289 CHAPMANS LANE
CARROLLTAN, VA 23314
TEL : [phone]
FAX : -
URL : http://www.watpa.iirt.net
E-Mail : [e-mail]

WAT PA TESARANGSEE

30 RAILROAD LANE
FREDERICKSBURG, VA 22405-3233
TEL : [phone]
FAX : [phone]

[amaebi]

Don't know about the Thai festival but in honor of Thai new year the Thai Embassy in DC is having "Thai Restaurant Week". A bunch of area restaurants are participating. here's a link I found: http://oca.thaiembdc.org/restaurantwe...
If you haven't tried fresh mangosteens before you are in for a treat! YUM!

[javachik]

Thanks for the Thai Restaurant Week post! I LOVE Thai food, and one of the participating restaurants is one of my faves near my house in Pentagon City. Woo hoo!

[Dennis S]

Looks like their site is having trouble, but there are other results on google. It's Wat Thai:
http://www.google.com/search?q=wat+th...

Go early for decent parking and kaffir lime trees. Both are gone by 10:15 am.

[LizG]

I can't find information about when the festival is this year -- April 12/13 or 19/20?

[baltoellen]

And, to tag on to this a bit, does anyone know when the Lao Wat in the area has its New Year's festival. (Lao, Thai, and Khmer New Years are at the same time....)

[sweth]

It's almost always the first Sunday on or after the 13th, so it should never be on the 20th; I just called Wat Thai and confirmed that they're doing it on the 13th since that falls on a Sunday this year.