The Bo Sang Umbrella & San Kamphaeng Handicrafts Festival 2026 is back in its 41st edition, featuring hand-painted paper parasols and other artisanal products to capture the heart of all folk craft lovers.
Every year, the Bo Sang Umbrella Festival is held for three days during the third weekend of January, from Friday morning until Sunday evening. This year, the Bo Sang Umbrella and Sankampaeng Handicrafts Festival will be held from January 16th to 18th, 2026.
Since the 1980s, the festival has continued to promote the village’s cultural history and artistic heritage. The parasols have come to be known as the signature craft of the Bo Sang Village.
Bo Sang Umbrella Festival highlights
Source: Borsang Umbrella Festival Facebook Page
To keep its distinctive folk arts & craft alive, Bo Sang Umbrella Cooperative hangs the paper parasols as street decorations on Bo Sang Road, organizes community learning activities, demonstrations, workshops, and painting competitions.
The festival also features handicrafts from villages of the Sankampaeng District, from the handmade paper of the Ton Pao Village to the woodworking of the Tawai Village. Once part of the ancient Lanna Kingdom, the town proudly presents craftsmanship that has passed down from generation to generation.
Visitors will be able to enjoy several festive activities as follows:
- The Bo Sang Beauty Pageant Bike Parade is a procession of young women dressed in traditional Thai attire riding bicycles and carrying handmade parasols. This year, there will also be over 500 dancers performing across the town in a spectacular, city-wide celebration.
- Umbrella and lantern displays can be seen adorning local streets and storefronts participating in the festival, giving visitors plenty of unique photo ops
- Umbrella-making demonstrations and workshops will give festival-goers a chance to see how local artisans make this signature craft, paint their own parasols, and create their own saa paper crafts
- The Kad Mua traditional cultural market) features over 30 local stalls selling handicrafts and San Kamphaeng specialties.
- Cultural performances are expected throughout all three days of the festival
For more updates, check out the official Facebook Page.
The saa paper umbrella
Originally a source of supplementary income between harvest seasons, the art of crafting saa paper umbrellas slowly became one of the most prominent handicrafts of Bo Sang, both historically and economically. Today, Bo Sang artisans specialize in various phases of the process:
1. Forming the structure – each individual bamboo strip is precisely carved out and woven into the wooden axles and finished with delicate threadwork.
2. Making saa paper – mulberry bark is dried and then pulverized into pulp. The pulp is then placed into water, dyed, and spread thinly onto a screen.
3. Attaching the paper – the panels are then glued to the ribs of the parasol, with embellishments added as decoration.
4. Painting the umbrella – After sealing with white gesso, the panels are colored with acrylic paints. The final design is then coated with a natural varnish for some protection.
Source: Suriyun / Shutterstock.com
Umbrella village
If you don’t have time to visit Bo Sang during the festival, it remains an interesting attraction that lies about 16 kilometers from Chiang Mai city.
Bo Sang, also known as the umbrella village, got its nickname over a century ago. A local monk known as Phra Inthaa stumbled upon the Burmese art of ornate paper parasols during one of his pilgrimages.
Realizing that his hometown contains all the necessary ingredients, Phra Inthaa brought the knowledge of umbrella-making to the community. To this day, locals can be seen showing their respect to the sculpture of Phraa Inthaa surrounded by the Bo Sang parasols.