Pattya Festival

Each April Pattaya celebrates itself with a week long festival of music, dance, beauty contests, parades, sandcastle contests and partying. Usually held at the beginning of April prior to the start of the rainy season in May, the festival is intended to promote Pattaya as a premier tourist destination. While there are stalls selling local delicacies and exhibitions of traditional sports like Thai boxing, the Pattaya celebration is not meant to be an example of authentic Thai culture. Rather, Pattaya uses the occasion to revel in its unique reputation as a cosmopolitan seaside city which appeals to the self-indulgent pleasures of the international tourist. The concerts, sound and light shows and fireworks displays on the beach make the Pattaya Festival a lively and special time to visit Thailand's most famous resort destination.