Japan Matsuri 2014

27 September 2014, London

Japan Matsuri, London’s annual free festival in celebration of Japanese culture in the capital, returns to Trafalgar Square on Saturday 27 September. As well as there being the opportunity to enjoy stage performances and family activities throughout the day, this year, as the festival adopts the theme of ‘washoku’, Japanese cuisine, there are numerous stalls selling all varieties of Japanese food to delight your taste buds.

The main stage plays host to a variety of performances with some great surprises, new friends to the festival appearing for the first time from Japan and also old friends who are making a welcome return.

Put on your track-suits and get ready to be put through your paces! To keep you fit throughout the day, all the way from Japan there will be exponents of Radio Taiso as seen on Japanese television. For the first time, a selection of Yurukyara®, the character mascots so popular in Japan, will perform and be around to entertain you. Look out for Kumamon®, Gunma chan®, Tagatan®, Ieyasu kun® and – voted the current cutest mascot in Japan – Sanomaru®. Just as cute are this year’s special appearances by a variety of Japanese dog breeds from the large Akita to the small Japanese Chin. After seeing them on the stage there is the chance to meet them all for yourselves.

There is amazing festival taiko drumming, Japanese dance, a live Nodo Jiman karaoke contest with fantastic prizes, classical Japanese music, violin virtuosity from the children of the British Suzuki Institute and the amazing Diana Yukawa. Get ready to be astounded by the feats of skill in the Martial Arts area with demonstrations of kendo, judo, aikido and karate.

Classical Noh theatre actor Tsumura Reijiro mixes his ancient art with ballet while multi-media entertainers SIRO-A from Sendai return to London to delight the audience once again with a precision dance and light projection spectacular. At the end of the festival, we are delighted to be able to welcome singer EXILE ATSUSHI from the hit boy band Exile to close the show.

Enjoy the atmosphere of a Japanese festival with food from the stalls while all the family can join in the activities including Japanese games and manga-drawing on the Manga Wall.

The celebrations kick off with the ceremonial sake barrel breaking at 11 am on the main stage and finish at 9 pm.

For more information, visit www.japanmatsuri.com

	27 September 2014, 11:00am - 9:00pm
	Trafalgar Square, London
	contact@japanmatsuri.com
	http://japanmatsuri.com/
	Japan Matsuri