Bangla Road in the middle of Patong will again be the centre of attention for the 2011 Songkran festival from 13-15 April.

Curtis Salgado is one cool cat–and he will be in Phuket for the Phuket International Blues Rock Festival from 25-26 February, 2011 at the Hilton Hotel, Kata Beach.

It was shuffling room only in some parts of the old town as tens of thousands of people thronged the streets of the old town of the annual Phuket Old Town Festival.

Members of Southeast Asia’s Peranakan (overseas Chinese, also known as Baba-Nyonya) community are very active in preserving their heritage and a central part of this is the annual Baba-Nyonya Convention, which rotates through the various Peranakan centres of Phuket, Penang, Singapore, Melaka and Medan. This year’s, the 23rd, will be staged in Phuket, at the Royal Phuket Marina, next Sunday, November 21.

Western films set in Thailand up to now have all pretty much had the same characteristics: The stars are Westerners and Thailand is simply an exotic backdrop. Thai actors and actresses are all taxi drivers, gangsters or gogo girls.

Bitter/Sweet, which had its Thailand premiere in Phuket last night (June 11) as part of the Phuket Film Festival, deliberately sets out to break that mould.

Around 100 people turned up at the Royal Phuket Marina last night for the official opening party of the 2010 Phuket Film Festival. Most were the usual suspects from Phuket, but there was also a sprinkling of movie people from Bangkok, specially invited for the event, along with Italian, American and Indian movie people whose films are showing during the festival.

It’s taken a while, but Phuket now has its answer to Koh Pha Ngan’s full moon reputation – the Phuket Roy Fest. Granted, the Roy Fest is not every month, but it has big names that Pha Ngan would find it hard to match.

With six weeks to go, the 2010 Phuket Film Festival is taking shape nicely. At least 10 feature films are now confirmed for the festival, which kicks off on June 4 at the SFX Coliseum in Central Festival with a screening of India’s official entry in the 2009 Oscars, Harishchandrachi Factory.

Apparently undaunted by the way the 2009 Phuket Film Festival fizzled out, organiser Scott Rosenberg is gearing up for another go at it, and has issued a call for entries for the 2010 event.

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.