Yi Peng Festival Chiang Mai 2026 — Dates, Tickets & Full Itinerary

At a Glance

If you only read one section, read this one. Here are the essentials of Yi Peng Chiang Mai 2026 at GLCM, before you dive into the full itinerary and ticket details below.

2026 Dates & Venue

Yi Peng 2026 falls on 24–25 November 2026, the full moon of the twelfth lunar month, celebrated together with Loy Krathong. GLCM runs its main event across these two nights in Mae Wang District, roughly an hour outside central Chiang Mai — close enough for an easy round trip, far enough to be a legally permitted, open-air release area with room for a genuinely large sky above the crowd.

Mae Wang sits among rice fields and low hills southwest of the city, which is exactly why it works so well for a mass lantern release: wide open sky, minimal light pollution, and safe distance from Chiang Mai International Airport's flight paths. Here's the venue on the map:

Full Itinerary — Hour by Hour

Every GLCM ticket follows the same fixed program, timed so the release itself happens once it's properly dark and everyone has had a chance to eat, watch the shows, and get settled before the lanterns go up. Here's exactly how the evening runs:

Times are approximate and may shift slightly depending on traffic, weather, and group size on the night, but the order of events stays the same.

What's Included in Your Ticket

Every GLCM ticket is built around one idea: you shouldn't have to piece together transport, food, and a lantern separately. A single Yi Peng festival ticket covers:

• Round-trip transfer from Prasert Land Parking, Nimman area, to the Mae Wang venue and back
• Full entry to the GLCM 2026 festival grounds
• Traditional Lanna performances — Fon Tian candle dance, Muay Thai, and White Lion Dance
• A Northern Thai (Lanna) dinner buffet
• 3 sky lanterns (khom loi) included per adult
• A safety-supervised, permitted release area, coordinated with local authorities
• Bilingual (Thai–English) event staff throughout the evening
• On-site parking for guests arriving by their own vehicle
• A blessing ceremony ahead of the mass lantern release
• An eco-friendly, supervised "No Plastic Zone" across the festival grounds

Ticket Prices 2026

All prices below are per person, in Thai baht (THB), and already include everything listed in the section above — there are no hidden add-ons for the transfer, dinner, or lanterns.

Prices are set by GLCM for the 2026 event and are per person; group and family bookings pay the same per-person rate for each ticket type selected at checkout.

How GLCM Compares

Chiang Mai has several organised lantern events during the Yi Peng season, and the cheapest Yi Peng ticket on paper is not always the best value once you factor in what's actually included. Here's an honest, general comparison against typical commercial lantern events near Chiang Mai:

This is a general comparison against the category of organised lantern events near Chiang Mai, not any specific named operator. Always check the exact inclusions of any ticket before booking.

How to Get There

The meeting point for every GLCM guest is Prasert Land Parking, in the Nimman area of Chiang Mai — a central, easy-to-find location for anyone staying in the Old City, Nimmanhaemin, or the surrounding hotel districts. From there, coaches make the transfer to the Mae Wang venue in approximately one hour, depending on traffic.

If you'd rather drive yourself, on-site parking is available at the Mae Wang venue, so self-driving guests don't need to join the coach transfer and can arrive directly. Either way, arriving by or before the scheduled pickup time keeps the whole group's evening running on time, since the itinerary is a single shared schedule for everyone attending that night.

What to Wear & What to Bring

• Comfortable, modest clothing — you'll be standing, walking on grass or dirt paths, and sitting for the shows and dinner
• A camera or phone, plus spare batteries or a power bank — you'll want plenty of charge for the release
• Mosquito repellent — the venue is surrounded by open fields, especially in the early evening
• A light jacket or long sleeves for after sunset, when the evening air in Mae Wang can turn noticeably cooler

Photography Tips for the Lantern Release

The mass release is the single most photographed moment of the night, and a little preparation makes a real difference to your results. A few practical settings to try before 20:30:

• Shoot in manual mode. Auto exposure will struggle in the dark and against bright lantern flames — manual gives you control over exactly how the shot renders.
• Use a slow shutter speed on a stable surface. A tripod, or even a bag or railing to steady your camera, lets you use a longer exposure (roughly 1–4 seconds) to capture the light trails of lanterns rising, rather than a single frozen dot of light.
• Keep ISO low. A low ISO (100–400) avoids grainy, noisy images — let the shutter speed and a wide aperture do the work of gathering light instead.
• Pre-focus on a mid-distance lantern. Autofocus can hunt in low light once lanterns are airborne, so lock focus on someone's lantern at a similar distance to where you expect the release to happen, then switch to manual focus.
• Use burst mode for the release itself. The exact moment hundreds of lanterns lift off together happens fast — a burst of frames gives you more chances to catch the composition you want.

Note: releasing lanterns inside Chiang Mai city itself is no longer legal — see our guide on where you can legally release sky lanterns if you're planning your shots around a specific location.

How to Book

Booking a GLCM ticket takes three steps:

1. 1.Choose your ticket quantity. Select the number of adult, child, and infant tickets you need for 24–25 November 2026.
2. 2.Pay online. Complete secure payment for your tickets through our booking page.
3. 3.Receive your e-ticket by email. Your confirmation and e-ticket are sent to your inbox immediately after payment is confirmed — just show it at check-in on the night.

Cancellation & Refund Policy

As a general policy, bookings cancelled at least 7 days before the event date are eligible for a full refund. Cancellations made between 3 and 6 days before the event are eligible for a 50% refund. Cancellations made less than 3 days before the event, and no-shows on the night, are not eligible for a refund. Date changes may be possible subject to availability — contact our team as early as possible if your plans change.

This policy is provided as general guidance; please refer to the terms confirmed at checkout, or contact us directly, for the exact policy applying to your booking.