The Smell Hits You Before the Floats Do
Melting beeswax has a particular sweetness — warm, slightly honeyed, with a faint sting underneath. In Ubon Ratchathani, during the days leading up to Buddhist Lent, that smell is everywhere. It seeps out of temple workshops where artisans have been carving for months. It clings to the wooden scaffolding around half-finished sculptures taller than a house. By the time the parade actually starts, your nose has already been at the festival for a week.
The Candle Festival (งานประเพณีแห่เทียนพรรษา) marks the beginning of Khao Phansa, the three-month rains retreat when monks stay inside their temple grounds to meditate and study. Centuries ago, communities simply offered candles so monks could read scriptures after dark. What that evolved into is harder to explain until you see it — enormous wax bas-reliefs depicting scenes from the Jataka tales, mounted on motorized floats and paraded through a mid-sized Isan city that most foreign tourists have never heard of.
Dates and the Lunar Calendar Problem
The festival is tied to the Thai lunar calendar, which means exact dates shift every year. In 2026, Asanha Bucha (the day commemorating Buddha’s first sermon) falls around late July — most sources point to July 29, with Khao Phansa the following day. The festival typically runs for several days around these dates, with the grand candle parade as the centerpiece.
That said, I’d recommend checking with the Tourism Authority of Thailand or the Ubon Ratchathani provincial website closer to the date. Some earlier sources list mid-July dates for 2026, but those don’t align with the confirmed Khao Phansa calculations. The TAT regional office in Ubon is fairly responsive on their Facebook page if you message in Thai or English.
The main parade runs along Uparat Road and Chayangkul Road, passing by Thung Si Muang Park and Wat Si Ubon Rattanaram. The night before the grand procession is arguably better than the parade itself — all the candle floats are parked at Thung Si Muang, lit up, and you can walk between them without the crowds and noise of the daytime event.
What Actually Happens During the Parade
The morning procession starts around 8:30 and runs until early afternoon. Dozens of floats carrying carved wax sculptures — some several meters tall — move slowly through the streets, accompanied by mor lam singers, traditional dance troupes in full costume, and drum sections loud enough to feel in your chest.
Two categories of candle floats compete: carved candles (เทียนแกะสลัก) with intricate bas-relief scenes, and assembled candles (เทียนติดพิมพ์) using molded wax pieces attached to a frame. The carved ones are more prestigious and take longer — we’re talking three to six months of daily work by temple teams. The assembled style produces larger, flashier floats but the detail work is different.
Judging criteria include artistic merit, storytelling clarity, and craftsmanship. Winners get serious bragging rights. Temple teams that do well attract more community donations the following year, so the competition isn’t purely ceremonial.
The evening parade is shorter, more atmospheric. Sound and light effects added to the floats make the wax glow differently in the dark. It’s the one most photographers prefer, though getting a good position means arriving hours early.
Getting to Ubon (It’s Easier Than You’d Think)
Ubon Ratchathani has its own airport (UBP) with multiple daily flights from Bangkok — Thai AirAsia, Thai VietJet, Nok Air, and Thai Airways all fly the route. Flight time is about an hour and ten minutes. Prices fluctuate, but booking a few weeks out during festival season usually lands somewhere reasonable.
The overnight train is the more interesting option. Special Express No. 23 departs Bangkok’s Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal at 9:05 PM and arrives around 6:40 AM — roughly nine and a half hours. First-class sleepers built in 2016 have proper berths, power outlets, and even a hot shower at the end of the corridor. You can book up to 180 days in advance through the State Railway’s D-Ticket site, though the interface is clunky. Trip.com also shows train options if you want to compare.
From the airport or train station, the city center is a short grab or tuk-tuk ride. Ubon isn’t huge — the main festival area around Thung Si Muang is walkable once you’re there.
Hotels Fill Up, and Not the Ones You’d Expect
Here’s the thing about Ubon during the Candle Festival: it’s mostly domestic Thai tourists. The international crowd is small. This means mid-range Thai-style hotels and guesthouses near the parade route sell out fast, while the fancier places sometimes still have availability because their price point overshoots the local market.
Book early regardless. Aim for accommodation near Thung Si Muang Park or along Uparat Road for walkable parade access. Agoda tends to have the widest selection for Ubon, including smaller properties that don’t show up on other platforms.
One practical note: some guesthouses in Ubon don’t have great air conditioning. July is hot and humid — high 30s Celsius with serious humidity — and you’ll want a functioning room to retreat to between parade sessions. Check recent reviews specifically mentioning AC before booking the cheapest option.
The Rain Factor
July is deep into rainy season in Isan. This doesn’t mean constant rain — more like intense afternoon downpours that can last thirty minutes or several hours, with unpredictable timing. The parade goes on regardless, but you’ll see locals with plastic sheets draped over everything.
Bring a compact rain jacket or poncho. Umbrellas are awkward in parade crowds. Quick-dry clothing beats cotton. And waterproof your phone — the humidity alone can fog up camera lenses.
Temple visits require modest dress — shoulders and knees covered. This applies even during festival chaos. Carry a light scarf or sarong if you’re wearing a tank top; most major temples have loaners available but the supply runs out during peak festival hours.
Beyond the Wax — Isan While You’re There
Most visitors leave right after the parade, which is a missed opportunity. Ubon Ratchathani province has genuinely interesting things that don’t require fighting crowds.
Pha Taem National Park sits about 100 kilometers east, right on the Mekong River. The main draw is prehistoric cliff paintings — geometric patterns and animal figures estimated at 3,000-4,000 years old. The cliff edge also happens to be the easternmost point of Thailand, meaning it catches the country’s first sunrise. Whether that’s worth waking up for depends on how you feel about symbolic geography.
The Sam Phan Bok canyon — sometimes compared to a mini Grand Canyon, which oversells it, but the eroded sandstone formations along the Mekong are genuinely strange and photogenic. Best visited in the dry season when the rock formations are exposed, but the river views in July are still worth the drive.
For day trips and guided excursions, KLOOK lists some Ubon-area options, though the selection is smaller than for major tourist cities. KKday occasionally has Isan-specific tours that include transport from Ubon, which solves the car rental problem.
What the Candles Are Actually For
It’s easy to treat the Candle Festival as a visual spectacle — and it is — but the religious layer matters for understanding what you’re watching. When the parade ends, the winning candles aren’t thrown away or stored in a museum. They’re offered to temples, where they’ll actually be lit and burned during the three months of Phansa. The wax that took months to carve gets used for its original purpose: giving monks light.
The community investment is real. Temple teams include everyone from professional sculptors to neighborhood aunties who help with the less glamorous prep work. Funding comes from local donations, and families often contribute specific amounts tied to Buddhist merit-making. It’s participatory in a way that tourist festivals rarely are.
I don’t know if Ubon will stay this way. The festival has been growing, TAT promotes it more each year, and the production values keep increasing. But for now, at least, it still feels like a community event that tourists happen to attend, rather than the other way around.
Leaving Ubon
The train back to Bangkok departs in the evening — No. 24, the return leg of the same sleeper service. If you time it right, you watch the parade, eat one more plate of som tam at the night market near the station, and wake up in Bangkok. Your clothes will smell like beeswax for another wash or two. That’s the part you remember later — not the floats, but the smell.