Thank you very much for the pictures. I enjoyed them very much. The craftsmanship of the main display was very admirable and I enjoy seeing those skills on display. The personal floats all looked very nice as well. I probably would have enjoyed being there very much.
Do you perform this function for the town where you live? The surrounding district? All of Issan?
The closest celebration we have occurs on the last Thursday of November. It is centered around a large meal with family. The intent is to give thanks for the harvest of the year.
I hope the general population didn't give you to many headaches when you were planning this event. I would liken it to "herding cats". I'm sure you have some regulars that were very helpful. There always seem to be some who want to do their own thing.
I am late replying to you because winter came a month early and then a ship returned to port which required attention in my area of expertise. The snowfall you see in the last set of pictures is what we would call a "trace" or a "dusting" because it was not very much. What doesn't show in the pictures is the accompanying ice. With early snow like this, the ground usually melts the first of the snowfall until the accompanying temperature falls enough to freeze the water on the ground. The ground then becomes "ice hard". This means that there is a layer of ice on everything until the temperatures return to normal. Very slippery. The early freeze also brings down all the leaves that were still on the trees in the last picture. this doesn't usually happen until December. Also, by now all of the birds from the tropics have returned south a couple of months ago and the arctic birds are now here to winter.
In closing, I hope the festival went smoothly and you are able to relax again.