by Anna Templeton

Little over a year ago, our in-house creative production company, Shuttlecock Inc,  was approached by Singha Beer to come up with a way of bringing the Songkran water festival to London, with visions of a celebration to rival that of the Chinese New Year. We snapped up the brief, seeing the perfect opportunity to bring about a party to end all parties, which would inspire press and punters alike to discover this wonderful Thai tradition and the unique taste of Singha beer…

For this very special two-day event, the Shuttlecock team brought the hustle and bustle of the streets of Chiang Mai to Carousel’s downstairs space. The industrial-style setting offers the perfect blank canvas for building just about any set: for recent events we’ve taken guests to Moscow, Italy and the depths of China via downtown San Francisco.

We built small shops where guests could weave flower garlands and create their own wishing lanterns. The lantern stall was strategically positioned next to a serene (and fully-functioning!) wishing stream, where guests could release their candle-lit creations, sending them down the water with a wish…

The fun didn’t stop at the arts and crafts. The “street” set continued with a row of cafés serving up typical northern Thai dishes prepared by our kitchen team. The menus included steamed chicken curry, fragrant minced pork, and grilled mackerel with papaya.

If you know Shuttlecock, you’ll know we love ourselves a bar, and our specially designed Singha bar took centre stage. We adorned it with the gold lions of Singha’s logo, and our ever-energetic bar team served up the delicious, ice-cold Thai beer from below a canopy of birdcages, parasols and lanterns.

Halfway through the night, the DJ ramped up the music and the confetti cannon exploded, submerging the room in a sea of white and gold paper. This marked the start of the water fight: each of the guests was given their own confetti cannon to set off so they could join in the festivities.