Sunday was the grand opening of the long awaited and much needed JJ Mall. JJ Mall offers the transition for the world famous outdoor JJ Market to the control environment of modern air conditioning. Chatuchak was infamous for its crowded narrow and hot stalls rigged together by plastic tarps and umbrellas. Now is moving indoors for more convenience and accommodate all the visitors that love to haggle and get cheap cheap prices on just about anything you can imagine. The outdoor market will still be around until they decide to demolish, well take apart that area. The value of the area just went up and low budget squatters will soon be out.

Anyways to kick off the grand opening of the new mall, a major radio station and music network decide to host a t-shirt festival for indie, unique, and rare shops to show off the latest fashion and designs with major pop singers hosting a concert. Only 50 baht to enter, that’s about a buck, the festival was a huge hit to the students and underground artist. The event drew over 10,000 ticket buyers and much more if you include the ones that snuck in, waited outside, staff and so on. The place was a sea of people craving a piece of the latest fashions and newest designs.

Trix One was the host DJ for Preduce, Alex and Chu. Droppin the latest in underground hip-hop, Trix One fed the locals’ urge for graffiti and hip-hop apparel.

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For those of you who are not familiar with JJ, hear is a quick history and blurb on it:

Chatuchak weekend market in Bangkok Thailand is the largest market in Thailand, and largest of the world. Frequently called J.J. or Jatujak, it covers over 35 acres (1.13 km²) and contains upwards of 15,000 stalls. It is estimated that the market receives between 200,000 and 300,000 visitors each day. Most stalls only open on Saturdays and Sundays hence the name “Weekend Market”.

The market offers a wide variety of products including household items, clothing, Thai handicrafts, religious artifacts, collectibles, foods, and live animals.

Chatuchak Market owes its origin to Field Marshal Plaek Phibulsongkram, the late prime minister of Thailand (1938-1944, 1948-1957), who came up with the idea of setting up a flea market in every town. As a result, the first flea market in Bangkok was held at Sanam Luang and was called Sanam Luang flea Market. However, there was time when the place was needed for other special functions and the flea market was then relocated to Saranrom Palace and settled there for 8 years. After that, it was moved again to Sanam Chai. But because of the limited space, it had to be moved back to Sanam Luang. In the same year, the government issued a policy to turn Sanam Luang into a public park for citizens of Bangkok and to be the venue to celebrate 200-year-anniversary of Bangkok, which would be held in 1982. Thus, it was decided that the flea market would be held at the Phahonyothin area from then on and it is later called Chatuchak Market after the nearby park under the same name.

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