What's on in Vientiane, Laos through the year

Busy — Dry season, school holidays in 6 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in January.

Still on: Dry season (1 Nov – 28 Feb (usually))

Busy — Dry season, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

• Hazard

  Burning season haze

  15 Feb – 30 Apr · usuallySmoke season

  Field and forest fires across northern Laos fill the valley with smoke and the far bank of the Mekong disappears for weeks. The city routinely records some of the worst air in the world in March. Source ↗

Still on: Dry season (1 Nov – 28 Feb (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in March.

Still on: Burning season haze (15 Feb – 30 Apr (usually))

Busy — Pi Mai, Lao New Year, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  Pi Mai, Lao New Year

  14–16 AprWater-festival New YearCrowdedClosures

  Three days of water throwing and temple visits, and a national shutdown around them. It falls at the hottest point of the year, which is rather the idea. Source ↗

Still on: Burning season haze (15 Feb – 30 Apr (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

• Festival

  Boun Bang Fai, the rocket festival

  1 May – 15 Jun · usuallyMajor festival

  Villages around the capital fire homemade bamboo rockets into the sky to ask for rain, with a good deal of drinking and mud on the ground beneath them. Dates are set locally. Source ↗

• Season

  Southwest monsoon

  15 May – 15 Oct · usually

  The rain clears the smoke out and the Mekong comes up from a sandbank to a real river. It falls hard in the late afternoon rather than all day.

Shoulder season — school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in June.

Still on: Boun Bang Fai, the rocket festival (1 May – 15 Jun (usually)), Southwest monsoon (15 May – 15 Oct (usually))

Quiet — school holidays in 5 of the markets that fill it, one of its worst months for weather

Nothing new starts in July.

Still on: Southwest monsoon (15 May – 15 Oct (usually))

Quiet — school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it, one of its worst months for weather

Nothing new starts in August.

Still on: Southwest monsoon (15 May – 15 Oct (usually))

Quiet — school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it, one of its worst months for weather

Nothing new starts in September.

Still on: Southwest monsoon (15 May – 15 Oct (usually))

Busy — Awk Phansa and the boat races, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

• Festival

  Awk Phansa and the boat races

  1–31 Oct · usuallyMajor festivalCrowded

  The end of Buddhist Lent brings candlelit boats floated on the Mekong at night and longboat crews racing on the river the next morning, with the whole embankment turned into a fair. Source ↗

Still on: Southwest monsoon (15 May – 15 Oct (usually))

Peak crowds — Dry season, That Luang Festival

• Season

  Dry season

  1 Nov – 28 Feb · usuallyCrowded

  The one comfortable stretch of the year on the Mekong bank, cool enough in the evenings for the riverside night market to be pleasant. It runs straight into the burning months.

• Festival

  That Luang Festival

  1–30 Nov · usuallyMajor festivalCrowdedBook early

  The country's biggest religious gathering: a week of alms, a wax-castle procession and a fairground around the golden stupa, ending on the November full moon. Source ↗

Busy — Dry season, school holidays in 5 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in December.

Still on: Dry season (1 Nov – 28 Feb (usually))