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Ramtutan Fair
 This
annual fair is held in August. The first rambutan tree was
planted in Surat Thani in 1926, and this fair celebrates the
delicious fruit, which now grows widely in the area. Highlights
include exhibitions of local products and ornamental plants,
floats adorned with rambutan and other fruits, and demonstrations
of trained monkeys who harvest coconuts.
Chak Phra Festival
 This
festival is held in October every year. Surat Thani celebrates
the official end of the annual 3-month Buddhist Rains retreat
(Phansa) with the Chak Phra Festival (literally 'the procession
of hauling the Buddha image'). The tradition stems from the
belief that the Buddha ascended to Heaven during Phansa to
preach to his mother. The festival marks the Buddha's return
to Earth, and is an occasion for religious merit-making and
general celebrations. Local people organise dazzling land
and waterborne processions of revered Buddha images (to symbolise
the Buddha's return to Earth) and boat races on the Tapi River
where long boats, each manned by up to 50 oarsmen, are ebulliently
raced. Religious devotion, spectacle and merriment combine
to make Surat Thani's Chak Phra Festival a memorable annual
event
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