About the Yosakoi Soran Festival

1. It is Fun to Participate!

There are only two rules for performers in the Yosakoi Soran Festival. One, dancers must hold a 'naruko' ~ a castanet or noise-maker~in their hands. This wooden clapper was traditionally used to keep birds out of the crops and fields. Two, the selected music for your performance must incorporate the traditional Hokkaido fishing folksong, 'Soran.' Loosely based on traditional Japanese Obon dancing, every team designs their own colorful costumes and choreographs their own distinctive and unique energetic dance set to lively music. Everyone is welcome to join in this fantastically fun annual event and every year, hundreds of teams from all over Hokkaido and the rest of Japan and increasingly, participants from overseas come and spread the word that The Yosakoi Soran Festival is truly the greatest street party in the world.

2. Super Season - June is not the rainy season in Hokkaido!

June is a special time of year to be in Hokkaido. After the long hard cold winter, spring has burst upon the island and the flowers are in bloom and there are no typhoons! For most of Japan, June heralds the arrival of the rainy season and a spell of wet miserable weather, but not in Hokkaido, where we are blessed without a rainy season. It is the most pleasant time of the year. It is not just the natural beauty of the season, but also the proud spirit of the local Hokkaido people as they come out from under the cover of winter and burst into life. The Yosakoi Soran Festival is a truly poetic sign that summer has come to Hokkaido and is the first full-blown outdoor event of the year. The simple fact that there isn't a rainy season in Hokkaido is just one more reason why visitors and participants find Hokkaido so attractive. One rather cumbersome but accurate slogan for the Yosakoi Soran Festival may be, "Let's go catch the Yosakoi Soran Festival in Hokkaido where there isn't any rainy season! Let's boogie woogie with the locals"

3. Unique Management

The Yosakoi Soran Festival is managed by ten full time staff and supported by a committee of 120 students (reflecting the humble beginnings of the festival when it was first performed and run by students), 4000 volunteers, 1500 police officers and an additional 1500 security guards for a grand total of over 7000 individuals dedicated to putting on the Best Festival in the East. The people of Hokkaido and the businesses and organizations that contribute their know-how and time and services are proud to host what is one of the largest festivals in the world, an event that in recent years has attracted some 44,000 dancers in over 400 teams and has been watched with awe and excitement by over 2 million people a year.

4. A Wealth of Official Yosakoi Soran Festival Goods

The Yosakoi Soran Festival is an extremely well run and well marketed event. There are all kinds of things for sale with the Yosakoi Soran Festival logo emblazoned upon them, from the popular 'naruko' castanet clappers to colorful cuddly stuffed dolls and teddy bears. All kinds of useful information, times and schedules for this popular event can be found in the fact packed official 'Yosakoi Times' handbook. To make getting around even easier, there is also a valuable one-day transportation pass offered for sale which enables one to travel freely between venues using both the Sapporo City Subway system and the Japan Rail network.