On 19 September 2015, the Royal Thai Embassy in Buenos Aires, together with other four ASEAN embassies in Argentina namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, co-organized the first ASEAN Festival in Buenos Aires at Plaza Barrancas, with an aim to promote ASEAN including food, culture and tourism of each member countries.

 

            The Royal Thai Embassy in Buenos Aires and other ASEAN embassies in Argentina joined hands with the Department of Foreign Communities, under Buenos Aires City’s administration, organizing the first ASEAN Festival entitled “Buenos Aires Celebra Sudeste Asiatico” or “Buenos Aires Celebrates Southeast Asia”, at Plaza Barrancas in Belgrano area. In the festival, there were booths from each ASEAN embassy to promote traditional food, basic information about the country, tourist information, as well as display handicrafts and traditional products. The Royal Thai Embassy prepared Phad Thai, chicken green curry, and chicken stir fried with cashew nuts and also leaflets contain information about Thailand and tourism to promote the country. The event received excellent response from the Argentine public.  

 

            Also, in the festival, there were cultural performances from each ASEAN country. For Thai part, the Royal Thai Embassy received kind cooperation from the Association of Muay Thai in Argentina to arrange demonstrations of Muay Boran (ancient style of Thai boxing), modern Muay Thai, and Wai Kru Muay Thai (or Showing Respects to Thai Boxer’s Teachers). During both boxing shows, the instructors also invited Argentine audience to participate in the activities on the stage who were rewarded with Thai boxing shorts and T-shirts sponsored by the Thai Ambassador. Apart from that, Thai students under AFS exchange programme also represented Thai community to demonstrate the “Baisri Su Kwan Dance”. Both performances were received with great interest and applause from local audience.

 

            The event also received good cooperation from popular local restaurants namely Lotus Neo Thai, Cocina Sunae, and Captain Cook, serving Thai and Southeast Asian food in the festival, two schools of Thai Massage namely Shiatsunuad and Wai providing massage service to the customers, as well as airline companies with services and flights from Buenos Aires to Southeast Asian destinations, such as Emirates and Turkish Airlines, promoting flight information.   

 

            The Festival was well attended by approximately 6,000 people, the number estimated by the Buenos Aires City Government. It was the first ASEAN Festival ever organized in Buenos Aires and was well responded by locals which reflected great interest of Argentine people towards food, culture, and tourism of the member countries in Southeast Asia.