The Part Nobody Photographs
Before the lanterns go up, there is an hour of waiting that no one talks about. You are sitting cross-legged on a mat in a field outside Chiang Mai, surrounded by several thousand strangers, holding a paper cylinder with a fuel cell wired to the bottom. Mosquitoes. A crackling PA system cycling through announcements in Thai, English, and Mandarin. The guy next to you is trying to figure out which end is up. It smells like citronella and grilled pork skewers from the food stalls behind the bleachers.
Then the monks start chanting, and the field goes quiet, and you realize the waiting was actually the point.
What Yi Peng Actually Is
Yi Peng follows the Lanna lunar calendar — it falls on the full moon of the second month in the traditional northern Thai system, which usually lands in late November by the Gregorian calendar. In 2026, the festival runs November 24–25, overlapping with Loy Krathong (the water lantern festival celebrated across all of Thailand on November 25).
The two festivals are related but distinct. Loy Krathong involves floating small banana-leaf boats (krathong) on rivers to pay respect to the water goddess. Yi Peng is the Lanna tradition of releasing khom loi — sky lanterns — to make merit and symbolically let go of misfortune. In Chiang Mai, you get both at once, which is part of why the city becomes absurdly crowded in late November.
The spiritual core is Buddhist. Releasing a lantern is an act of making merit, similar to offering at a temple. The monks lead a chanting ceremony before the mass release, and participants are expected to set a silent intention — letting go of something, asking for something — before lighting the fuel cell.
You Cannot Release Lanterns Wherever You Want
This is the single most important thing to know, and the thing most travel blogs bury or skip entirely.
Since 2020, sky lanterns are banned in Chiang Mai’s city center. The old city, the riverside, anything near the airport — all off-limits. The reason is straightforward: burning paper floating into aircraft flight paths is dangerous, and loose lanterns landing on wooden rooftops start fires. The penalties are not a joke — up to five years imprisonment and a 200,000 THB fine (roughly USD 5,700).
So those dreamy photos of lanterns rising over Tha Phae Gate? Either they are from before 2020, or someone was breaking the law.
The only legal way to release lanterns is at organized, ticketed events held outside the city. The two main ones:
CAD Cultural Center — The largest venue, hosting around 22,000 people across both nights. This is the most commercialized option but also the most reliable. Tickets include two sky lanterns, one krathong, a Lanna buffet dinner, and shuttle transport from a meeting point in town. Multiple ticket tiers from Standard to Premium. Book through KLOOK or KKday — they are authorized resellers and the booking process is more straightforward than navigating the Thai-language official sites.
Lanna Dhutanka (Mae Jo) — Next to Mae Jo University, this is the more spiritual, less commercial event. Smaller crowds, longer monk-led ceremonies, more meditative atmosphere. The catch: tickets are not sold directly to the public. You have to book through licensed tour operators, and availability is limited.
Both events sell out. Not eventually-sell-out. They sell out months in advance.
The Actual Schedule (Not the Brochure Version)
Here is roughly what a CAD event day looks like, based on the published schedule and what people actually report:
13:00 — Shuttle buses depart from the meeting point in Chiang Mai city. Do not be late. They leave on time.
14:30–17:30 — Arrival, registration, wandering the grounds. There is a craft zone and cultural village with traditional Lanna performances. Honestly, this part is fine but not the reason you are here. Good time to eat the street food stalls rather than waiting for the buffet.
17:30–19:00 — Buffet dinner. Thai Lanna cuisine, decent but not exceptional. The vegetarian options are limited — consider eating beforehand if that matters to you.
19:00 — Entry to the ritual area. This is when it starts to feel real. The field fills up, the noise drops, and the ceremony begins.
~20:00–20:30 — Mass lantern release. The exact timing depends on the ceremony’s pace. When the signal comes, everyone lights their fuel cells, waits for the paper to fill with hot air, and releases together. The first few seconds are chaotic — lanterns bumping into each other, some tipping sideways, a few catching fire on the ground. Then they clear the treeline and the chaos becomes a river of light.
The whole release sequence lasts maybe fifteen minutes. It is over faster than you expect.
What the City Looks Like During the Festival
Even though you cannot release lanterns in town, Chiang Mai is still transformed during Yi Peng. Temples are decorated with paper lanterns — the kind that hang, not fly. Wat Phra Singh and Wat Chedi Luang hold candlelit processions. The Ping River fills with krathong on the evening of November 25.
Tha Phae Gate becomes a gathering point — street performers, food vendors, families with kids. The moat around the old city is lined with candles. It is beautiful in a quieter, less dramatic way than the mass lantern release, and you do not need a ticket to enjoy it.
The food situation during the festival is excellent. Night markets expand, and temporary food stalls pop up everywhere. Khao soi (northern Thai curry noodles) is not specifically a festival food but Chiang Mai does it better than anywhere, and you will be hungry after sitting in a field for six hours. Sai ua (northern Thai sausage) from the vendors near the moat is worth finding.
Getting There and Staying There
Chiang Mai International Airport (CNX) has direct flights from Bangkok (about 75 minutes), Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and several Chinese cities. From Bangkok, you can also take the overnight train — roughly 12 hours, but the sleeper cars are comfortable enough and you save a night of hotel costs.
Accommodation during Yi Peng is a problem. The city is not that big, and late November is already peak tourist season in northern Thailand even without the festival. Booking three to four months ahead is not being cautious — it is being realistic. The Old City area puts you walking distance from the temple celebrations and the Ping River krathong floating. Agoda tends to have the best selection for Chiang Mai guesthouses and boutique hotels; Trip.com sometimes has better rates on the larger chain hotels.
Within the city, songthaew (the red shared trucks) are cheap and go everywhere. Grab works. Renting a scooter is common but Chiang Mai traffic during the festival is genuinely bad — think about whether navigating unfamiliar roads in the dark after a long day is really what you want.
For the organized lantern events, shuttles are included in the ticket price. You do not need to arrange your own transport to the CAD venue or Mae Jo.
The Honest Downsides
The crowds are real. Twenty-two thousand people at the CAD event alone, across both nights. Lines for everything — food, bathrooms, the shuttle back to town. The post-event shuttle situation deserves special mention: everyone leaves at the same time, and the wait can be over an hour. Your phone signal will likely be useless for thirty to forty minutes after the release because the cell towers are overwhelmed.
The weather is usually pleasant in late November — dry season, temperatures around 20–28°C — but you will be sitting on the ground outdoors for hours. Bring something to sit on that is not just your dignity. A light jacket for after sunset. Mosquito repellent, seriously.
The environmental impact is an ongoing concern. Thousands of paper and wire lanterns coming down somewhere in the countryside is not great. Some events have switched to biodegradable materials, but not all. It is worth being aware of.
Walking Back to the Guesthouse
The shuttle dropped us at the night bazaar around 10:30. The streets were still busy — tourists and locals mixed together, some still carrying unlit krathong to the river. I bought a bag of longan from a cart near Tha Phae Gate because I had not eaten enough at the buffet. The woman running the cart had festival makeup on, the kind with gold leaf pressed onto the cheeks.
Back at the guesthouse, I could still smell the smoke in my hair. My phone photos were all blown out — white blobs against black sky. The one decent shot was accidental: someone else’s lantern, half-inflated, caught from below with the flame visible through the paper. It looked like a small sun being born.
