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 will excite a school cultural festival (51–60)
Mysterious Candy Shop Zenitendo
Create a world and perform it! Here are some ideas inspired by The Mysterious Candy Shop Zenitendō.
Hugely popular from children’s novels to anime and film, The Mysterious Candy Shop Zenitendō is known for its thrilling, heart-pounding stories and distinctive worldbuilding centered on sweets.
The characters are unique, of course, but focusing on the worldbuilding above all might be the key to creating a wonderful play.
Adding clever twists within the story will likely capture the audience’s attention.
Be sure to give it a try!
Double Dutch
Double Dutch is a jump rope activity using two ropes.
Its appeal lies in the ability to create visually striking performances to music while incorporating elements of hip-hop dance and acrobatics.
As long as you have ropes, you can do it almost anywhere, and with three or more people, it’s easy to adjust the number of participants—making it a great choice for a school festival performance.
blue dresser
The dance “Ao Dance,” which gained popularity through YouTube and other platforms in 2019, originated from a Pocari Sweat commercial.
Its powerful choreography and a video featuring a collaboration with the Mie High School dance club helped it become popular nationwide.
As you can see in the video, the choreography grows more impactful with larger groups, making it perfect for school sports festivals.
Although the intense contrast between stillness and motion makes it fairly challenging, performing the same choreography together fosters strong teamwork and can be highly educational.
Solo Drum Show
The drums are an instrument that takes care of the rhythm in bands and the like, and in most bands they end up in a sort of behind-the-scenes position, but they’re actually really cool! If you can play the drums, how about showing off your skills on stage as a performance? It depends on your ability, but audiences at school festivals are usually lively, so they’ll definitely get into it.
Stage performance ideas that excite audiences at school culture festivals (61–70)
Handbell performance
Handbells are strongly associated with Christmas and church.
They were originally played to accompany hymns.
Each person holds a bell with a different pitch, connecting them to form the melody.
Their beautiful tone can make you feel purified and utterly enchanted.
With more players, you can cover a wider range, add richness to the sound, and create a more majestic feel, so it’s a performance I highly recommend trying with a larger group.
Don’t limit yourself to hymns or classical music—choose any songs you like that seem to suit the bell’s timbre and give them a try.
Parody of a variety show
This is about doing a parody of a variety show that everyone loves.
Instead of just copying a popular show as-is, it’s better to give it your own twist—maybe even play around with the title a bit.
Recreate the show’s signature segments, make an opening sequence that looks similar, and be sure to prepare the background music, too! It’ll have everyone roaring with laughter and will surely become a great memory of the school festival—and of your high school life.
Relay Duet
When it comes to piano duets, it’s usually two people playing together, but with a “relay duet,” where performers take turns one after another, a large group can play the piano.
You could also have whoever’s free introduce the piece or dance along to the piano, allowing for all kinds of creative arrangements.