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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Quiz/variety games (11–20)
Dancing Gesture Game
A dancing gesture game that became a hot topic after being introduced by the hugely popular YouTuber group, Fischer’s.
It’s a simple game where the presenter listens to music through headphones and expresses the song’s lyrics with gestures, and the others guess the song.
It’s great because even people with no dance experience can join, as long as they can convey the lyrics through gestures.
Of course, make sure to choose songs that everyone definitely knows—otherwise the game could go on forever.
Pick wisely and have fun!
Giant karuta
Karuta has long been loved in Japan.
We also recommend preparing a “giant karuta” set using oversized cards.
You can choose any size, but the bigger they are, the more exciting it tends to be.
Try making them about ten times the size of regular karuta cards as a guideline.
Another appeal of giant karuta is that you can add originality through illustrations and text.
Consider themes related to your school or class, or use well-known TV shows or manga as material.
You could also have each person create one card of the set.
Donut & Macaron Tower Game
This is a game where you compete to see how high you can stack macaron and donut mascots within a time limit.
Since the rules are very simple, it might be important to make the mascots colorful and distinctive.
To heat up the gameplay, let players choose whether to use donuts or macarons, and hide differences in shape that subtly affect how hard they are to stack—that’s recommended.
If you set a short time limit, players will feel rushed to stack quickly, which should make it even harder to stack well.
Large-group physical activity games (1–10)
Real Escape Game
Why not try hosting a real-life escape game—hugely popular in many places—at your school festival? Hide codes and puzzles all around a room, and don’t let participants leave until they’ve solved them all.
We recommend using a room that’s a bit larger than a regular classroom.
You don’t want it to be solved too quickly, so creators will need to put in some serious thought.
Unlike a haunted house attraction that uses the entire classroom, this doesn’t require elaborate decorations—just set up mechanisms at key points, so the decor itself can be simple.
Use popular real-life escape games as references and create a fun, challenging, and exciting game!
Giant Sugoroku
One idea for a game that uses the whole classroom is a “giant sugoroku.” In a giant sugoroku, the players themselves act as the game pieces and move along the board.
A fun twist is to use oversized money and items to match the scale.
It’s also important what’s written on each space of the board.
Prepare original prompts not found in other sugoroku games to entertain the players! By the way, using plastic sheets or cardboard is recommended for creating the spaces.
Treasure Hunt Game
As a game everyone can participate in, I’d like to propose a treasure hunt.
Let’s think about hiding spots that fit the arrangement of objects and the space.
If you hide the treasure somewhere that’s not easy to find, it will probably make things more exciting.
Another charm of treasure hunts is that they can be combined with themes or other elements.
For example, you could recreate the world of an anime for the treasure hunt, or have instructions written on the treasure that participants must follow.
Please come up with arrangements that will get everyone excited.
stamp rally
A stamp rally is also one of the classic games.
The basic idea is to collect stamps set up at various points on a designated sheet, and you clear the game once you’ve collected them all.
If you want to add another layer of gameplay, you could, for example, give out stamps for participating in certain activities.
You can also make the act of finding the stamps itself enjoyable, or have a picture appear when all the stamps are placed.
One of the attractions of a stamp rally is how easy it is to add originality.