During 29-30 July 2016, the Royal Thai Embassy in Stockholm, in cooperation with Ministry of Culture of Thailand, the Thai offices, as well as Thai communities in Sweden, held the Thai Festival “Thailand @ Kungsträdgården 2016” in Stockholm which has been consecutively organized for the third year since 2014. Many visitors were greatly impressed and entertained. The festival attracted over 100,000 visitors during two days. On this occasion, H.E. Mr. Apichart Chinwanno, Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Thailand delivered welcoming remarks followed by the remarks by H.E. Mr. Kiattikhun Chartprasert, Thai Ambassador to Sweden, which highlighted the objective of the festival which is to promote the image of Thailand in different areas such as culture, trade, economy, tourism and people-to-people ties between Thailand and Sweden.  

              The activities organized by the Royal Thai Embassy consisted of mobile exhibitions on Sufficiency Economy and the relations between Thailand and Sweden, Thai food cooking demonstration to promote Tom Yum Kung, Green Curry, and Stir-fried Chicken with cashew nuts as a part of Amazing Thai Taste’s project, promoting Khao hom mali   (Thai Jasmin rice) to Swedish and foreigners, promoting Thai Salong fabric in a modern style to make Thai products more value added, and selling Thai products to promote OTOP as well. As part of the event, the Thai Airways International Office in Stockholm organized a reception on 29 July’s evening to celebrate 30th year Anniversary of Thai Airways in Stockholm. Special price tickets to Thailand were also on sale in the event. The Tourism Authority of Thailand also organized a workshop of handicraft from the Northern part of Thailand such as umbrella painting as well as showing Phi Ta Khon, a typical Thai mask used in celebration of Buddhist merit making in Thailand. There were over 10 Thai food stalls from Thai restaurants in Sweden, Thai massage, real estate representatives from Thailand, and several stalls selling different kinds of Thai products such as fruit, vegetable, Thai seasoning which were very popular in the festival. Apart from the exhibition and Thai food stalls, there were stage performance shows such as Thai Traditional performances sponsored by the Ministry of Culture of Thailand, live music from Thailand, the demonstration of Muay Thai, Thai traditional performance, as well as Thai country music performed by Thai communities in Sweden, and many more.  

This year the Embassy invited a Thai innovator who brought with him his own innovation, a robot designed for taking cared elderly people named ‘Dinsow’ to the festival to promote Thailand’s policy on innovation which was attracted by many visitors especially the kids. The Swedish kids learnt how to greet in a Thai way or ‘Wai’ from this robot’s movement. In addition, the visitors also joined lucky draw for a chance to win roundtrip air tickets to Thailand with accommodation by scanning QR code created by a group of Thai students in Sweden. 

The visitors expressed their appreciation on the activities and enjoyed the performances on the stage, exhibitions and Thai food. Thailand @ Kungsträdgården 2016 is one of the most attractive events in Sweden.