I'm currently spending three days in Yasothon, a city in Issan, the Northeast of Thailand.. Yasothon is pretty off the beaten path, and is on almost nobody's radar, except for one time each year. On the second weekend every May, Yasothon holds its annual rocket festival. Partly as a fertility ritual and partly to symbolically seed the clouds to bring on the rainy season, people here make homemade rockets out of bamboo with elaborate decorations. They launch them into the sky and people from all over the region compete to make the best ones that can stay airborne the longest. Apparently the best ones stay aloft for over 5 minutes, which is pretty insane. I've heard they divert air traffic on that day, but I'll find out for sure in Sunday's post after I've seen the rockets go.

Today was the first day of the festival. The biggest rockets (which contain 120 kilograms of gunpowder!!!) are put on display, and districts from around the region send groups of young people to perform traditional music and dance, which is really quite nice (I'll post that soon as well).

At night the center of town turns into a 2 kilometer long dance party. Without even exaggerating I would say there was a stage every 40 meters along the road, each blasting its music at eardrum-crushing volume. There was a lot of Morlam - the traditional music of the Northeast. There was some Thai classic rock, a few pop rock type bands, some other types of Thai country, and a lot of really bad pounding techno. The whole province and a few neighbors seemed to be out dancing, drinking, eating, and meeting friends. Issan people really do know how to party.

Tomorrow there's a parade with the rockets, and Sunday they launch. Stay tuned here for more. And now, presented without comment are my best photos from the party tonight: