We’ve just heard from our friend Sunny Sachdev in Bangkok, Thailand with news that a second Southeastern Gathering festival is scheduled there in October. The first, actually called the Southeastern Old Time Gathering, was held in November of 2025.
Bangkok is a major vacation destination spot for people throughout Asia and Australia, and a good many from Europe as well. Traditional Appalachian and Celtic folk music has a small but very loyal following there, natives and foreign born residents alike who get together weekly to jam and learn.
Sachdez, a co-organizer of the Gathering, says that artists are booked to appear from Bangkok, the USA, Ireland, and Japan at the Public House Bangkok hotel, October 20-25. It won’t be a large concert format such as we are accustomed to seeing in the US, but more scaled-down and intimate events in the hotel pub or in private rooms.
He is excited about the Gathering in 2026, and the fact that this music is finding a home so far from where its origins lay.
“These traditions have travelled for hundreds of years, but they have always belonged wherever people gather to play them. A tune can move from an Irish session to an Appalachian string band, and now to a room in Bangkok, carrying its history while becoming something new.”
Traditional music lovers in Bangkok are invited to attend, along with anyone curious about this western music whose adherents now spread across the globe. Those who might want to travel in can book accommodations there at the Public House, and not only enjoy music from North Carolina banjoist Trey Wellington, Irish artist Luke Coffey from County Roscommon, and Irish tenor banjoist Cameron Mather, but stay in a five-star hotel while doing so. From Tokyo will come the Bluegrass Police, and there will also be music from Trad Bangkok, pickers and singers from the region.
The festival includes three main concerts (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), along with smaller shows Tuesday through Thursday, each focused on a single instrument:
- Tuesday, October 20 – Dobro Night (7:00–9:00 p.m.)
- Wednesday, October 21 – Mandolin Night (7:00–9:00 p.m.)
- Thursday, October 22 – Banjo Night (7:00–9:00 p.m.)
Tickets are available for individual shows, or an all-festival pass is offered for roughly $100.
Full details can be found online.