Stage performance ideas to excite a cultural or school festival
When it comes to school festivals, one of the biggest highlights—beyond all the food stalls and games—is the live shows and performances on stage! Instrumental music, singing, dancing, theater, juggling, and more…
The festival stage is the perfect place to showcase activities you’ve been practicing regularly.
And since it’s a special occasion, you might be thinking, “I want to practice something new and show it off!” For those of you who feel that way, here are plenty of recommended show ideas for your school festival! Show a different side of yourself and help make the festival even more exciting!
- Ideas for stage events and attractions that will liven up a school festival
- Cultural Festival: Ranking of Popular Booth Ideas
- [For High School Students] A roundup of recommended attractions for the school festival
- Recommended plays for a high school cultural festival: popular, crowd-pleasing ideas
- [Middle School] Cultural Festival Attractions: A roundup of popular exhibits, games, and stage performances
- A roundup of recreational activities to liven up cultural and school festivals
- Magic that excites crowds at cultural and school festivals
- A show-stopping party trick that energizes the crowd at a school cultural festival
- [Non-food] Cultural festival attractions: from classroom exhibits to stage events
- Costume and cosplay ideas to heat up your school cultural festival
- [By Genre] Cultural Festival / School Festival Booth Catalog [2026]
- Ideas for exhibits recommended for school culture festivals. Film screenings, too.
- Recommended Plays and Musicals for Cultural Festivals, School Festivals, and School Performances
Stage performance ideas that excite at school festivals (21–30)
Freestyle basketball
As the name suggests, it’s a free, freestyle form of basketball.
Instead of scoring points by making baskets, it’s more like a dance competition—one that’s all about looking cool.
Performers skillfully handle the ball in sync with loud music, and excite the crowd with light, nimble footwork.
You don’t need prior basketball experience to give it a try, but ball-handling skills really do matter in this sport.
Solo showcases are great, and team performances in group battles are seriously cool too!
School Imitation/Mimicry Contest
Impressions are a classic act that ranks high in any era and any generation.
Don’t most people have at least one go-to routine? When you watch impression shows on TV, it’s amazing—if you close your eyes, some are so spot-on you’d think it’s the real person.
How about trying impressions as your performance? Don’t just rely on your signature bit—prepare a bunch and practice.
Imitations of people you know always get big laughs!
Stage performance ideas that excite at cultural and school festivals (31–40)
Stomp
Stomp is a famous performance show off-Broadway in New York.
It’s a powerful production where performers clap their hands, slam deck brushes on the floor, and use various props like garbage cans and oil drums to make music.
Watching them have so much fun will make you feel the excitement too!
body percussion
Clapping hands and stomping feet can create rhythmic sounds like percussion.
Even if a single person’s sound is small, when everyone does it together, it becomes surprisingly loud and powerful.
It takes a certain number of people and some practice, but you can do it without any equipment, and above all, a body percussion performance that locks into the rhythm is incredibly impactful.
If you want a stage that stands out from the rest, why not give it a try?
air band
When people think of air bands, many picture Golden Bomber, but there’s also a type where none of the instruments—including the vocals—are actually performed; instead, you do choreography to background music.
You can go for over-the-top moves that would be impossible if you were really playing, or throw in totally unrelated impressions—either way, if you blast a song everyone knows and go wild on stage, it’s sure to get the crowd pumped.
Screaming Contest
Since it seems there are noise meter apps for smartphones, how about holding a “screaming contest” using one of those? You could set a theme in advance, too.
It might be fun to judge not only the volume but also the content of the screams.
Participants would likely relieve stress, making it a win-win!
Creative dance
@hiro_asa Watch the rest on YouTube! (for the cultural festival/sports festival original dance)#Sports Festival DanceCultural Festival DanceCreative Dance#DanceVideoRecital dance#choreographybyme#danceperformance#dance#DanceChoreographyHundreds of millions of light-years#omoinotake#I tired dancingSchool dance#MiddleSchoolDance#HighSchoolStudentDance#jpop#WantToConnectWithDanceLovers#shakedancestudio Aikawa School
♫ Original song – hiro_asa – hiro_asa
Memories made by brainstorming together! Here are some ideas for creative dance.
These days, there are many stages where people perform cover dances by Japanese idols and overseas artists, but how about trying a creative dance with choreography and feelings you came up with yourselves? It might be good to aim for choreography that surprises the audience or makes them want to cheer.
If you include moves that match the lyrics or catchy choreography, some people in the audience might even feel like copying the dance themselves.