Recommended for school cultural festivals! Stall ideas that let you enjoy a traditional fair atmosphere
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 culture festivals! Stall ideas (11–20) that let you enjoy a traditional festival atmosphere
light bulb soda
If you want to nail that Instagram/SNS aesthetic, “light bulb soda” is the way to go.
Basically, you just pour a drink into a cup shaped like a light bulb, but combined with the festival vibe, it’s hard to resist.
You can customize it however you like—add pink or blue kohakutou (amber sugar), or use food coloring to change up the drink’s hue.
You could even run a simultaneous event where people upload photos of their “light bulb soda,” and give a special prize to the most photogenic shot to boost buzz.
It’s a super cool drink that’s perfect for students who use their smartphones all the time!
Ghost story narration
When you think of an ennichi, it’s a festival held near shrines and temples, so it has a mystical atmosphere, doesn’t it? For that reason, Japanese-style ghost stories seem highly compatible as an ennichi attraction.
Prepare several ghost stories in advance and practice reading them aloud.
It might also be a good idea to assign a person in charge for each story.
In addition, if you decorate the classroom with a theme of yokai and Japanese horror, it will enhance the mood and raise the overall quality.
To make it an unforgettable experience for your visitors, aim to refine both the readings and the classroom decorations.
grab bag
How about a candy grab, where you fill a box with lots of sweets and let people scoop them up with a ladle or their hands? It keeps costs low, people can eat what they get right there, and it also makes a nice take-home treat—so these grab-and-go booths are said to be popular.
It’s exciting and fun when someone manages to grab a lot of candy.
When stocking up, it’s convenient to use a local candy wholesaler or shop online.
If you put the candy in a large inflatable pool and have participants grab it with a toy grabber arm, it adds even more of a game element.
Gem scooping
Shops with scooping games—like goldfish scooping, yo-yo balloon scooping, and super ball scooping—really spark that urge to take on a challenge.
Part of the appeal is how easy they seem: you find yourself thinking, “I could do that,” or “Even I can get one.” That’s why I recommend the glittering “gem scooping.” You’re scooping toy gems, of course, but combined with the festival atmosphere, you somehow end up wanting them.
You can probably source fake jewelry that looks real at a low cost, so it’d be nice to mix a few in as prizes.
Candy shaped like rings would likely be a hit, too!
Yo-yo fishing
It’s a game where yoyos made from water balloons with rubber bands attached are floated in a pool, and players try to fish them out to win.
You get two kinds of fun: the enjoyment of catching them and then playing with the yoyos you’ve won.
The standard fishing tool is a hook attached to a twist of Japanese paper (washi), which easily dissolves in water—making it tricky.
Using a variety of balloons to pack the pool full of yoyos is recommended for a colorful, eye-catching display.
Strikeout
It’s the familiar game you often see on TV, where you try to throw a ball with force and punch out a target.
You can adjust the difficulty by changing the target size, the distance, and the type of ball used.
The fun of this game is watching the target pop out cleanly when the ball hits it, so focus on that aspect when making your own.
An ideal setup for strikeout would be a sturdy outer frame that isn’t affected by impacts, with lightweight targets attached to it that the ball can punch through.
Recommended for school culture festivals! Booth ideas (21–30) that let you enjoy the festive atmosphere of traditional Japanese fairs
Treasure Hunt
A slightly unusual festival booth idea is a treasure hunt.
When you hear “treasure hunt,” you might imagine roaming around a large area, but it’s actually easy to do even in a small space! A recommended approach is to prepare a container filled with lots of sand, bury the treasures inside, and have participants search for them.
Depending on what you bury, you can put the prizes themselves in the sand, but it’s better to bury colored stones and let the prize vary by the color found.
That way, you don’t have to worry about the prizes getting dirty.
Besides sand, you can also change things up by hiding the treasures in opaque, colored water—feel free to experiment with how you conceal the treasures to your liking.
