Games that liven up festivals. Ideas that children can enjoy.
Festivals and fair days are fun events that kids can take part in, aren’t they? In addition to local festivals, many kindergartens, nursery schools, and elementary schools also plan summer festivals, don’t they? In this article, we’ve gathered ideas for festival games and activities recommended for those who want to find games that kids will love or want to know about events beyond food stalls.
It’s packed with fun ideas you can enjoy both indoors and outdoors, so please use it as a reference.
If you’re making the games by hand, having the children help will make great memories!
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Games that liven up a festival. Ideas kids can enjoy (1–10)
Plastic Bottle Bowling
Bowling’s popularity shows signs of a modest comeback here and there.
Many malls and shopping centers now have bowling alleys attached.
Some even have kid-friendly lanes with no gutters.
With that in mind, we recommend a handmade, warm-and-fuzzy “PET bottle bowling” booth for festival stalls.
For small children, use empty plastic bottles and a sponge ball; for older kids, use plastic bottles filled with water and a volleyball—prepare pins and balls suited to each age group.
The key to making it a hit is to set a rule where players receive a prize no matter how many bottles they knock down.
Super Ball scooping
Didn’t you do this at festivals and street fairs when you were a kid? It’s super ball scooping.
The colorful super balls give the stall that authentic feel and a summery vibe.
Just like goldfish scooping, you use a paper scooper (poi) to scoop up super balls, and you get to keep however many you scoop.
These days, it seems the prizes can vary depending on how many you get.
You know how you get greedy trying to scoop a big ball and the poi tears right away (lol).
It’s the kind of thing that even adults might get carried away with.
Whac-A-Mole
How about trying whack-a-mole, a classic game that people of all ages can enjoy? At arcades, moles pop up from a flat surface and you hit them with a hammer, but you can easily make your own by crafting the holes from cardboard and moving the moles in and out from the back.
Of course, the moles are operated manually behind the scenes.
Give it a try—work hard to pop the moles up and pull them back down!
Games that liven up festivals. Ideas that children can enjoy (11–20)
Candy fishing
There are probably many small children who have never tried fishing.
Letting them experience the feeling of fishing with a festival “candy fishing” game might be a good idea.
A common version uses magnets instead of hooks.
If the magnet on the line connects with the magnet attached to the candy, they can successfully “catch” it.
The fun of this activity is struggling a bit with the wobbly fishing line.
If you lengthen the line and place the prizes a little farther away, it also works well as a recreation for older elementary students.
It gets even more exciting if you mix in a secret prize among the candies.
target practice
It’s similar to a shooting gallery, but target ball is a safe game that uses balls, making it suitable even for small children.
You can line up prizes on a table and have players aim at them with balls, or you can assign points to targets and vary the prizes based on the total score.
There are many target-throw sets available for rent—panel types, parachute types, and more.
If your festival is large, renting is a good option.
For a small-scale festival, consider making it by hand and adjusting the difficulty according to the ages of the participating children.
PET bottle darts
At first glance it may seem plain, but once you try it, it’s guaranteed to be a blast! That unexpectedly exciting game is “Plastic Bottle Darts.” The rules are simple: stand a plastic bottle upright and drop a pair of chopsticks from above, aiming for the mouth of the bottle.
Despite its simplicity, the real appeal lies in its depth—it tests focus and fine motor skills.
It’s perfect for summer festivals and fair-style events at preschools, kindergartens, and elementary schools, and by adjusting the distance or the number of chopsticks to match the age group, students of any grade can enjoy it.
It’s a game with very simple prep and materials, yet it creates unforgettable memories.
ball throwing
I don’t think there’s anyone who has never been to a festival or a fair.
And the festivals and fairs you went to as a child are the kind you remember even as an adult.
When it comes to fun-filled fair games, “ball toss” is the go-to—if you’re unsure, pick this booth! If there are lots of elementary school kids, the trendy strikeout-style ball toss is recommended; it’s fun for both adults and children.
For festivals focused on younger children, lay the targets flat instead of standing them up.
Using sponge balls makes it enjoyable even for little kids.
Sometimes a ball will just roll and accidentally drop into a hole.
You could even set up two versions tailored to different age groups!