Like many provincial towns across Thailand, Yasothon has only a few tourist sights. There are one or two temples that are worth visiting, in particular Wat Thung Sawang  and Wat Mahathat Yasothon . Situated in the center of the town, the latter is home to the Phra That Phra Anon chedi , thought to have been built in the 7th century to house the relics of Phra Anon, the closest disciple of the Buddha.

Yasothon is best known, however, as the principal venue for the Bun Bang Fai or “Rocket” Festival. As a result of harsh weather in Northeast Thailand, this festival, the principal function of which is to appease a Hindu rain god, is one of great symbolic importance. Local people invest enormous sums of money in the construction of huge bamboo rockets. The gunpowder that goes into the rockets is pounded by young girls in the temple grounds, and, perhaps surprisingly, it is Buddhist monks who possess the expertise of building and firing the rockets. The rockets are paraded on floats through the streets, surrounded by revelers, then shot into the clouds to “fertilize” them. The festival’s sexual overtones come out in bawdy humor and flirtation, not encouraged at other times. The owners of those rockets that fail to go off are ritually coated in mud.