A roundup of recreational activities to liven up cultural and school festivals
When it comes to school festivals, there are all kinds of attractions like food stalls and stage performances! How about incorporating activities that everyone can enjoy together—what you might call recreational events? In this article, we’ll introduce plenty of recommended recreation ideas for your school festival! We’ve picked activities that visitors of all ages can enjoy, such as lottery-style raffles and workshop-style hands-on experiences.
Try running a recreation event that other classes aren’t doing and make your school festival even more exciting!
- Recommended ideas for student council projects at a school festival, such as recreational activities and stage events.
- Ideas for stage events and attractions that will liven up a school festival
- Cultural Festival: Ranking of Popular Booth Ideas
- Games that rival street festivals and variety shows!? Crowd-pleasers for school cultural festivals
- [By Genre] Cultural Festival / School Festival Booth Catalog [2026]
- Unusual attractions you can do in a classroom for a cultural or school festival
- [For High School Students] A roundup of recommended attractions for the school festival
- Ideas for class projects at the school festival: A roundup of popular attractions
- [For Elementary Schools] Recommended Exhibits and Recreational Activities for a Cultural Festival
- [Middle School] Cultural Festival Attractions: A roundup of popular exhibits, games, and stage performances
- Stage performance ideas to excite a cultural or school festival
- [Non-food] Cultural festival attractions: from classroom exhibits to stage events
- Festival booth menu items that can be served without cooking and without using fire
Recreation ideas that liven up cultural and school festivals (31–40)
Menko Tournament
This is a recreational activity where participants can experience the traditional game “menko.” We’ll set up a corner where you can make your own handmade menko, and once yours is ready, you can try a knockout-style tournament using your creation! Alternatively, we can flexibly adapt the activity—for example, focusing mainly on playing menko, or offering only the menko-making experience.
It might also be a good idea to let participants choose which experience they want and divide them into separate booths accordingly.
Borrowed Item Race
Have you all ever done a “borrowing race”? And when you hear “borrowing race,” you probably picture a school sports day, right? You pick an envelope, and inside it says what you need to borrow.
You go find it—somewhere, from someone—bring it back, and compete for your finish order.
Since we’re doing this at a school festival, how about making it a bit grander—something that has you dashing through the school building, scouring the entire campus? Let’s make it tricky too, with prompts that will take some effort to find—not just objects, but people as well.
Manzai Game
We’re in an unprecedented comedy boom—people even talk about the “Seventh Generation” of comedians.
Turn on the TV and you’re guaranteed to see comedy talents, and there are tons of popular comedian channels on YouTube.
So how about hosting a manzai game or a manzai contest? If a pair of close friends steps on stage, it’s sure to be a hit.
If creating an original routine is tricky, you could even perform a straight copy of a popular duo’s act.
I’ve heard the 2019 M-1 champions, Milkboy, have routines that are relatively easy to imitate.
Laughter is the best medicine! Let’s spread the laughter far and wide.
Bon Odori (Bon dance)
When you think of summer, you think of Bon Odori.
It’s a classic performance that gets everyone from kids to seniors excited at summer festivals and neighborhood events.
Let’s give Bon Odori a try! It doesn’t have to be a song made for Bon Odori—just play a song you like and dance! The unexpected mismatch of “This song for Bon Odori?” can actually make it even more fun.
Making a DIY yagura (dance tower) might boost the excitement, too.
Let’s all sing
Let’s choose a song together and try expressing the music using only our voices, without instruments.
Make the most of the men’s low voices and the women’s high voices, and work together to turn it into a wonderful piece.
Be sure to have fun and give choral singing a try!
Recreation Roundup to Liven Up Your School Culture Festival (41–50)
Mölkky
Among outdoor sports that can be enjoyed, Mölkky has gained attention amid the camping boom.
It’s a sport with even a world championship, so some of you may have seen videos of it on YouTube.
The game is played using a throwing stick called a Mölkky and targets called skittles.
You throw the Mölkky to knock down the skittles, and the basic rule is that the first to reach 50 points wins.
Its appeal lies in the fact that anyone—regardless of age or gender—can take part, and although it’s simple, it involves strategy and mind games.
It’s plenty of fun even for beginners, making it a perfect choice for a school festival recreation activity.
Physical fitness test
How about we all try doing some fitness tests together? Nothing too serious—more like for fun, while showing off a bit.
It really livens things up.
We can measure grip strength and back strength, or do a sit-and-reach to see how many centimeters below zero someone gets, and turn it into a friendly competition.
Sometimes there’s that one person who’s incredibly stiff and can’t do the forward bend at all, right? That kind of thing gets everyone excited too!