Games that rival street festivals and variety shows!? Crowd-pleasers for school cultural festivals
Looking for games or events that will get everyone excited at your school festival? There are plenty of easy, classroom-friendly activities like the “10-in-a-row Kendama Challenge,” “Gachapon,” and “Thousand-String Pull,” and with a bit of creativity, they can be even more fun.
They’re simple yet adjustable in difficulty, and perfect for instantly boosting the atmosphere at your venue.
In this article, we’ll introduce mini-games for school festivals that are sure to put smiles on everyone’s faces.
They’re also easy to prepare, so be sure to use them as a reference!
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Festival staples: Fairground games (11–20)
gachapon
Gachagacha machines, where you insert a coin and turn a lever to get a prize, can be found just about everywhere nowadays and are popular even with people from overseas.
Let’s set up one of these machines so people can enjoy the excitement of not knowing what will come out.
Making it completely random with the contents hidden is one option, but adding a window or using transparent capsules could let players enjoy aiming for a specific prize.
If the mechanism for how items come out is too simple, it becomes too easy to target them, so it might be better to make the path they travel and the structure before the exit more complex.
Goldfish scooping
Goldfish scooping is a classic game at cherry-blossom viewings and summer festivals that everyone knows.
You keep scooping up goldfish until your scooper (poi) breaks.
Give the goldfish you caught as a prize.
You’ll need to prepare the right environment—like oxygen and food—so the goldfish can swim actively, but it’s something people of all ages will enjoy.
lottery; drawing lots; raffle
You often see lotteries at festival stalls.
Those raffles at booths that make you half-skeptical with claims like “Win a game console!” But if you’re running one as a school activity, how about making it a “no-lose” raffle so everyone can enjoy it? Include a grand prize, and keep the rest of the prizes fairly even in value.
Snacks or stationery are simple, compact, and a good fit.
Arrange or stick the prizes on a wall with numbers, and have participants draw a ticket to see which numbered prize they get.
casino
How about decorating the classroom with a casino theme to create a space where people can enjoy various games? Real casinos rely on the skills of dealers who host guests, but here, let’s focus on the atmosphere and choose games that place less burden on the dealer.
Roulette and blackjack are recommended because their rules are very simple.
Rather than the quality of the games themselves, it’s important to think about how to stage the world—pay attention to the glamorous classroom decorations, dealer costumes, and similar details.
In the end, it might be easiest to have participants collect chips and then exchange them for prizes based on the number they’ve earned.
ring toss
For school cultural festivals and fairs, ring toss is an activity that people of all ages can enjoy casually.
It doesn’t require much preparation, and with a bit of ingenuity, you can make it yourself without spending money.
Adding prizes will make it even more exciting and enjoyable.
Ball Toss Game
The ball-toss game you often see at amusement parks and arcades.
Each player gets a set number of balls and competes to see whether they can land them in the targets and how many they can get in.
The ones you find at facilities where a roar sounds when a ball goes into the mouth-shaped target are pricey, but it might be fun to try making that part yourself.
It really amps things up if lights flash or flashy music plays when a ball goes in.
Try building it using cardboard and scrap materials!
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.