The annual Straw Bird Fair in Chai Nat ended on Sunday, leaving local authorities with about 10 tonnes of garbage to collect and dispose of - a task expected to take three days.
The fair, which features colourful birds crafted from rice straw left after the harvest, draws large numbers of visitors each year.
A survey of the fair site, in front of the provincial hall and an area along Chao Phraya River, on Monday morning found heaps of garbage strewn over the ground, mainly plastic bags, styrofoam containers, leftover food and scraps.
Traders and food vendors left piles of food near their stalls, and the rubbish had already begun to rot and smell bad.
Jetsada Seephinong, mayor of Chai Nat’s Muang municipality, said work crews would clean up as quickly as possible, concentrating first on the roads the parade passed along, to reopen them to traffic. Then the cleanup would begin at the provincial stadium.
About 30 municipal employees were assigned to cleanup the area, which would take about three days to compl;ete, he said.
The straw birds are paraded through the town before being set up at at the provincial hall grounds.