I subbed a Japanese TV show about this and one funny thing about the festival is if you get splashed, you can’t get angry at the person that got you wet.
Seems like that rule has ended.
I’ve been there for Songkran. It truly is just fun and games. Most are very polite and don’t hose down an obvious tourist who has no water weapon. It’s a lot of smiles and frolicking.
The deaths are almost entirely from car accidents.
EC