Old Phuket Festival offers a feast of entertainment
Entertainment at last year's Old Phuket Festival: Kids ride in a rickshaw, a young boy demonstrates his kung fu prowess and a dragon is paraded along Thalang Rd.
The 11th annual Old Phuket Festival, which this year will run from February 19 to 21, promises a feast of free entertainment along with the chance to mingle with locals who will also be celebrating the Chinese New Year.
So easy I can do it standing on my head: Performers from China spin plates at last year's Old Phuket Festival.
As in past years, streets in the old part of Phuket Town will be pedestrians-only, with street entertainers, food stalls and the chance to take a look inside some of the old town’s fascinating shop-houses.
In the Queen Sirikit Park (on Thalang Rd, next to the Toursim Authority of Thailand’s offices), ten entertainment groups from China, acrobats, Shaolin Kung Fu experts, Tibetan dancers, a mask dance from Sichuan and extracts from Chinese opera will occupy the specially erected stage. There will also be street parades of locals in traditional costume.
For those of a religious bent, buses will take people on tours of five Chinese Taoist shrines. The tour schedule begins at 1pm every day. There will also be rickshaws to ride in, and gentle boat trips on Klong Bang Yai canal, which runs under Thalang Rd and was once the city’s main trade thoroughfare.
For egotists, the Post Office will offer a special souvenir: get a stamp with your photograph on it, which can be mailed anywhere.
