Recommended for school culture festivals! A collection of stall ideas that let you enjoy a festival-at-the-fair vibe
The festival fairs often held at shrines are packed with game and food stalls, and they’re so much fun, aren’t they?
Why not bring some of those fair games and foods into your own school or campus festival?
In this article, we’ll share recommended ideas that let you capture a festive atmosphere at cultural and school festivals.
We’ve gathered not only classic games and foods you’d see at real fairs, but also some unique, offbeat stall ideas.
All of them fit in small, booth-sized spaces, so you can set them up indoors or outdoors.
If you’re unsure what to do for your cultural festival, be sure to use these ideas for inspiration!
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Recommended for school and cultural festivals! A collection of stall ideas (81–90) to enjoy a festival atmosphere
medal game
This is a medal game you can make by customizing cardboard and set up in classrooms or hallways for a school festival.
If you get creative with the lever and coin slot, you can build a realistic, three-dimensional machine.
When you insert a medal, it travels down slopes and through dividers; it’s a success if it lands in a scoring zone or a prize zone.
To ensure the medals slide smoothly, it’s important to fine-tune the slope angles and the widths of the dividers.
By setting rules for how to play, you can tally points and rank players, enhancing the gameplay.
Not only is it fun to play, but the building process itself becomes a collaborative class activity, making it a memorable idea for the school festival.
kushiage (deep-fried skewers)
How about offering kushikatsu (deep-fried skewers), which is a rare choice for school or cultural festivals? Kushikatsu covers a wide range—vegetables, seafood, meats—so you could let people pick one favorite, or even better, let customers choose their own ingredients.
You might also try a setup like at specialty shops, where you provide the fryer and customers fry their own skewers.
deep-fried mochi
At school festivals, people often disagree about what to offer at food stalls.
Some want things that look impressive, are unique, or are trendy—there are all kinds of ideas.
But going classic on purpose—simple is best—can be a great choice too.
Chewy mochi coated in a sweet-and-salty sauce paired with the toasty aroma of nori is a reliably delicious combination.
These days, there are also products you can serve after just letting them thaw naturally, which cuts down on prep and cooking time.
If you warm them right before serving, inventory control and hygiene will be spot on.
Festival Stall Games
The food stalls at festival fairs were so much fun when we were kids, weren’t they? Let’s try recreating that fair as an activity! Ring toss, shooting games, super ball scooping, and yo-yo fishing bring back memories, right? Shaved ice would really boost the festive mood, too! Wearing a yukata for the atmosphere is also recommended.
No matter how old you are, you can always enjoy a festival fair!
ball throwing
A game where you throw a ball toward a bucket placed at a distance, aiming to land it inside without it bouncing out.
You can vary it in many ways, such as by adjusting the size balance between the ball and the bucket, the angle of the bucket, or the distance to the bucket.
The farther the bucket is, the more force you need to throw the ball to reach it, which makes it more likely to bounce out even if it goes in—that’s the tricky part of this game.
If you set a fixed number of throws and make the prizes more luxurious based on how many times the ball lands in the bucket within those throws, you can keep the number of buckets and balls you need to prepare to a minimum.
lottery; drawing lots; raffle
Lottery booths are a staple you can’t do without at any festival fair.
Part of the fun is seeing which prize you’ll win, but another highlight is the drawing process itself, since there are many different formats.
The classics include the type where you draw a slip with a number and receive the corresponding prize, or the string-pull type where you pull a string and get the prize attached to its end.
If you want easy preparation, go with a simple lottery draw; if you want to boost excitement, the game-like string-pull lottery is recommended.
With the string-pull format, even if the prizes are light or modest, people can still enjoy the lottery process itself—an appealing point to note.
Recommended for cultural festivals and school festivals! A collection of stall ideas to enjoy a festival-at-the-fair vibe (91–100)
Basketball
You often see challenge segments using basketball hoops on TV variety shows too, right? And of course, large arcades always have basketball game machines installed.
It’s funny how just seeing a hoop makes everyone want to sink a shot, isn’t it? I’m sure it would be a popular booth at a school festival as well.
Give the basketball club a handicap, let girls shoot from a bit closer, and give little kids a bonus ball—make it so people can score and happily take home a prize.
If you don’t have a portable hoop, it could be fun to build one together!