The National Museum Bangkok has a large collection including several types of sacred object such as Buddha images and Hindu deities. These are kept both in storage and displayed in the permanent exhibition galleries. Although objects are rotated, limited gallery space and the need to be selective means that not all the important works can be exhibited. The challenge of museum staff is how to interpret sacred objects for the public—how do we engage museum conservation protocols yet respect the continued importance of their ritual significance? How do we sustain our museum exhibition practice and include local knowledge and religious practices? The ‘Relics and Navagrahas Puja’ is a pop-up exhibition that addresses these challenges. Since 2010, senior curator Dendao Silpanond, has installed this exhibit during the annual Songkran festival (12th-14th of April), which marks the traditional new year. The audience response to this re-imagined display, which includes ancient and present-day rituals, indicates that it has worked better than expected. During the first year the number of visitors (around 2000) kept increasing to more than 5000 over three days despite being a tiny display space within the Thai pavilion in the museum’s grounds. It is because people can participate – both as visitors and as visual participants – that this exhibition turns out to be as sacred as any pop-up shrine that Buddhists and others visit annually. This paper discusses how curatorial strategies have been developed in response to this growing audience interest, and what this means for conventional museum protocols in the future.