Los Angeles’ Thai Town is the only ethnic business district in the US specifically dedicated to the Thai American community. This area of East Hollywood has been home to the Thai American community since the 1960s. Since its founding in 1994, Thai Community Development Center has been working to preserve and develop the neighborhood through multiple creative placekeeping efforts that center the Thai culture and identity, including hosting an annual Songkran, or Thai New Year, festival that draws over 400,000 people from all over the region.
Thai New Years Festival
Thai CDC
Los Angeles, CA
Links
Los Angeles’ annual Thai New Years Festival, SongKran, has evolved into an event that draws a yearly crowd over 400,000 people.
As the crowds eagerly await the winner of the current round of Muay Thai at the annual Songkran festival, the Apsonsi, a mythic Thai figure that is half woman and half lion, looks down from her perch.