Songkran, Thai New Year: the festival, the food, and April in Adelaide
10 July 2026 · 2 min read · Rim Thang Thai, Glenelg
Every April, Thailand stops for its biggest party of the year. Songkran — Thai New Year — runs officially from 13 to 15 April, and for those few days the whole country turns into one enormous, good-natured water fight. Streets close. Buckets, hoses and water pistols come out. Strangers soak each other, and everyone laughs.
But the water fight is only the surface. Underneath, Songkran is about family, respect and starting the year clean — and, like everything in Thailand, it's about food.
More than a water fight
Water sits at the heart of Songkran because water cleanses. In the traditional version of the festival, Thais pour scented water over Buddha images at the temple, and gently over the hands of parents and grandparents — a way of showing respect and asking for blessings for the year ahead. The street-wide soaking came later; the meaning came first.
It's also the great going-home holiday. People travel back to their home provinces the way Australians drive home for Christmas, and once everyone's home, the eating starts. Big shared meals, tables crowded with plates, everyone reaching across everyone else. If you've ever eaten with a Thai family, you know the scene.
Songkran in Australia
Thai communities across Australia keep the festival going. Thai Buddhist temples in most capital cities hold Songkran celebrations around mid-April — merit-making in the morning, food stalls and music through the day, and a respectful splash of water for luck. It's worth keeping an eye out for what Adelaide's Thai community has on when April comes around.
We'll be straight with you: we don't run a water fight on Jetty Rd — the council would have questions. What we can do is the food. Through April, our kitchen does what it always does: cooks the dishes a Thai family would put on a Songkran table, fresh daily, seven nights a week.
What belongs on a Songkran table
Songkran eating is shared eating — lots of dishes in the middle, jasmine rice for everyone, and no plate that belongs to just one person. From our menu, this is how we'd build it:
- Fish Cakes ($13.90) and Prawn Cakes ($15.90) — finger food to graze on while the table fills up
- Green Curry (from $21.90) — green curry paste in coconut milk, shared over jasmine rice ($4 / $7)
- Tom Yum Soup (from $21.90) — hot, sour, and ladled from the middle of the table
- Basil Stir-Fry (from $20.50) — the everyday wok dish every Thai family cooks at home
- Pad Thai (from $19.50) — for the kids, and for everyone else too
Eat Thai with us this April
Songkran lands mid-April, but we won't hold you to the exact dates. Any night that month is a fine excuse to eat the way Thailand does at New Year: too many dishes, shared rice, and someone insisting you try one more spoonful before you're allowed to stop.
We're at 39 Jetty Rd, Glenelg — dinner from 5PM, seven nights, dine-in or takeaway on 0426 359 311. Directions and bookings are on the visit page. Bring the family, and sawasdee pee mai — happy new year.