You won't believe your eyes

After its successful debut last year, the Chiang Mai Festival returns to the city’s Three Kings Monument this week, offering not just music but funky artwork through the inaugural international 3D street painting festival.
“The Chiang Mai Festival 2012 will be bigger and greater,” says Yut Wanichanon, adviser to Earth Wind & Fire. “Look at last year: we expected 4,000, maybe 5,000 people and 10,000 turned up.”
“It is a good magnet to draw both local and foreign tourists back to Chiang Mai after the last few weeks of air pollution and it’s also a good opening event for the Songkran festivities, which kick off the following weekend,” says Wiwatchai Boonyapak, executive director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s event department. The sky above the city is bright again thanks to the rain.”
“The festival presents real artists and their live shows in both art and music. It also allows audiences to get close to them, which doesn’t happen much in Bangkok or overseas,” says Sukanya Chanchu of the Thai Hotels Association, which encompasses Dusit D2, Royal Princess, Centara, Oriental and Le Meridien. “We have a lot of leading hotels, more than enough to meet the needs of Thai visitors and also for groups of tourists from Hong Kong and Singapore.”
The festival aims to raise the image of Chiang Mai as the centre of international music, art and culture, hence the extension from three days to 16 days.
It opens with the 3D street painting festival, which brings in chalk painters from overseas, among them Melanie Stimmel Van Latum, Remco Van Latum and Lysa Ashley from the US, Ruben Poncia from the Netherland, Tony Cuboliquido from Italy and Juandres Vera from Mexico. They put together their own works before getting together to transform the square into an outdoor art exhibition and the venue for workshops from Friday until March 27.
Stimmell Van Latum is the creator of 3D and Renaissancestyle street paintings and is the founder of the Street Painting Academy through which she offers students the opportunity to learn this 500yearold Italian tradition.
Poncia is known for winning a place in the Guinness World Records for the largest anamorphic street painting in 2009.
“We’re limiting space to 100 people a workshop. But many local and international schools and educational institutions are interested so we may need to rethink our plans,” says Yut. “After the workshop, all have a chance to show off their street painting ability. Maybe, it will be a new career for them. Who knows?”
The square near the monument will be transformed into a kind of a French garden, bringing harmony to art and music.
The music festival takes place on April 6 and 7 and features German contemporary singer Thomas Kiessling, South African opera, the male vocal group Il Quinto, a Blues Brothers tribute band and Garth Taylor, as well as Thai artists Jakkawal “Nueng” Saothongyutitham, Mango Republic and the bass duo BaDeeBiDu.
“This year, we expect this festival to attract more than 35,000 local and international visitors and help to generate some Bt200 to Bt300 million in tourismrelated revenue,” says Yut.    

16 days
- The Chiang Mai Festival runs from Friday until April 7 at the Three Kings Monument.
-  Admission is free.
-  Call (053) 292 224, email [email protected] or see www.ChiangMaiFest.com.