Concept

Building friendship through sharing music and art in Nature

There are no corporate sponsors, just a group of dedicated artists and volunteers who organize and run this festival annually.  We strive to keep it pure, genuine and organic.  

For ten days, we all live and honour Nature together.  We play music, create art, share and exchange our love and ideas.  Through that, we become friends. 

Yes, we have a big sound system where you can enjoy a variety of music from local and international bands.  But our focus of the festival is what happens around the campfire and in the campsites where people gather together and jam freely.  

Building friendship through sharing music and art in Nature. This is our concept. 

It's our 14th this year. 

Welcome!

Shambhala  Organizer Team
(We are a group of die-hard Japanese (ageing 😆) hippies, supported by our friends in Thailand. We like to keep things analogue, handmade, organic and slow. Let's be together and share love, peace and beauty ✌️)

We Love Nature

We are nature. We are inseparable from the beauty of the mountains, rivers and forests that surround us. 

Dear festival attendees and vendors,

We want all of us to “level up” our awareness and love for Nature.

At the last festival with a record number of attendees, we had overflowing garbage bins every day. Let’s reduce it by incorporating the following initiatives. 

• Bring your reusable cup, plate, container, and cutleries

• Carry and use them even for the food and drinks you buy from vendors

• Bring a refillable water bottle. There is a free water fountain.

• Bring some bin bags to keep your trash in by your tent so that you won’t have to walk all the way to the garbage collection area. 

• Minimize your trash and take them with you when you leave the site.

• Please use organic soaps and detergents for washing your body and clothes because everything you use in the shower, laundry area, and the nearby hot spring will flow directly into the river.
  
  Thank you. ❤️

"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make" -- Jane Goodall

HISTORY

Minami Masato (南正人 "Nami-san") (3 March 1944 - 7 January 2021, aged 76) was a rock singer-songwriter and guitarist.  He was one of the core members of "Inochi-no-Matsuri (命の祭り "Festival For Life"), which was an 8-day camp-in event held in 1988, two years after the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. 

Nami-san held the first Japan-Thai grassroots festival called "Jubilee Jam" at Chiang Mai University in 1998 and 2003.  After some years, he and his group decided to do it again but this time, in a bigger open space in the countryside. They found a venue in Chiang Dao and started the "Shambhala In Your Heart" festival in 2010.

He was touring until his last day, fell on the stage during a live performance and passed away.

Below is a story about the 1988 Festival For Life, 1988 Jubilee Jam and 2010 Shambhala Festival written in English by Nami-san. (Source: Wikipedia) (Photo from his official website)

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People started to ask me many questions about how the Shambhala Festival started. So today I write for the first time about this Festival.

It was 1988 when in Japan we held an 8-day outdoor camping festival. It's about 2 years after the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. We named the Fes "INOCHINO-MATSURI" (Festival For Life) with No Nukes One Love as the theme.  It was really the first big gathering to protest and fight for the world without Nukes. More than 10,000 people (including 6,000 young Japanese hippies) gathered at this MATSURI. There had never been an event like this before where so many people camped in one place for more than a week. Many musicians performed and declared their strong will to create a better world.

Caravan, a famous Thai band was invited to this MATSURI. Mr. Surachai, the leader of the band told me, "Nami-San, What a nice beautiful festival! I hope we will hold a peaceful festival like this someday in my country. In Thailand when we plan these festivals most of the time we get in trouble and never be peaceful like this."

I could not forget his words for a while. So when I had a chance to visit Thailand in 1992, I tried to find him. Pik-San took me to meet him.

"Hello! Mr. Surachai, I finally came to see you! I'll give you my hand if you plan the festival." I expected his good reaction. But he said "I'm sorry, Nami-San, I'm now sick and I don't have enough energy. So please find someone as your partner.

I was a little bit disappointed but quickly changed my idea. OK. I'll find someone. There must be someone. So I visited Thailand 6 years from then on. But everything was not in good condition. I almost gave up the plan. Then a man, Mr. Took, a famous rock guitarist, said to me "Senpai!! I will do it! Let me do it!"

So the first Japan-Thai-grassroots festival (we named it "Jubilee Jam) was held in 1998 at Chiang Mai University. A part of the profit was donated to the Elephant Hospital. In 2003, we held a second festival at Chiangmai University. Pro. SPACHAI showed himself up as a representative. The festival was not what I expected, but somehow it was a o.k when I think this was held in a foreign country. A part of our profit was donated to the A.D.E.P-Aka Daughter Education Program. But actually, I had to spend quite a lot of my money on those two festivals. I was tired of money trouble and thought no more festivals in Thailand.

Some years have passed and in Japan, many of my friends requested me to open the festival again. So I decided to hold the festival again, but this time I wanted to do it outside of the city in some local nature with no sponsor.

At first, we looked for a location in Pai. We (Stephan, Pik and me) drove around the Pai area every day but we couldn't find it. I went back to Chiangmai to tell Urano (a Japanese friend living in Chiangmai ) this story. Then he said, "Nami-San, there are many nice places in Chiang Dao. You sure like it." 

The next day we headed for Chiang Dao. At the big crossroad in Chiang Dao, we turned left. After that, we were standing on the ground Doi Luang campsite, as if some invisible energy carried our car. Looking up at the Doi Luang mountains in front, I sensed this is the place. 

That year when I came to Thailand I saw a very strange mountain from the airplane's window and the mountain in front of me was that mountain. This must be guidance from heaven. Four or five villagers gathered in one place, pointing their fingers to a silver snake and talking to each other. "Servant of God has come. Something good will happen." The silver snake rarely comes down to people. People never kill this snake.

In October of that year, I visited again and contracted with Mr. Nikom who is the top of this land. In 2010, the first Shambhala festival was held. It turned out very small festival, about 250 people joined. We had a small income and the budget was minus. But we were happy and decided to carry on.

We do this festival not for money, but for a bright future. Yes! At least here in Shambhala, we have lots of time. We can think, talk, watch, walk, find, far from the city lights. We slowly become one family. This is quite different from the full moon party.

I think of myself as a carrier of Japanese-style MATSURI (festival) to Thailand.

Each year, more people came from all over the world. In this year, 3,500 people from 63 countries enjoyed the festival. No troubles and no fighting in past 9 years. Local people like this festival very much and Thai people are a big part of the participants in this festival.

This is the short story of how this movement started.