All The Fun Of LaFete | Bangkok Post: Arts & Culture

The season of song and dance, of whimsy and gravity, of spellbinding steps and mesmerising moves, of colour and glamour _ in short, La Fete _ returns. For the eighth time, the French Thai Cultural Festival is ready to enrich the soil of our cultural topography, to provoke and delight, tease and tantalise, with its established formula of imported French artists and homemade Thai talent.

So far the track record has been impressive; the deft programming that relies on solidity and surprise has scored lovingly, tempting us often to exclaim magnifique!

With a mix of free and paid events, and with the expansion of many shows to other major provinces, La Fete is a fine example of cultural give-and-take, of reaching out and an invitation to looking in. This year the multi-flavoured festival takes place at various venues in Bangkok from Feb 2 to Mar 29, while certain events, chiefly the cinema week, will travel to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Hua Hin, Khon Kaen, Koh Samui and Phuket. Similar in form yet different in details, La Fete 2012 has a special significance since this year is the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Alliance Francaise in Bangkok _ and later this year, too, the venerable Alliance will move its stronghold from Sathon (a site of many fond memories) to its new building near Lumpini Park.