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SONGKHLA: The Hat Yai Vegetarian Festival started on Saturday night and will run until Oct 7, with more than 100 shops participating and serving vegetarian food.

The festival, which has been held in Hat Yai for 20 consecutive years, was launched at the Supasarn Rangsan park in the Hat Yai municipality and attended by a large number of tourists, including some from Malaysia and Singapore who came to this southern Thai city for a weekend getaway.