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 festivals. Ideas that children can enjoy (11–20)
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.
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!
Cardboard Frisbee
Cardboard Frisbee: throw a frisbee at holes cut into a cardboard target! It’s a bit like a strikeout-style game, but since controlling a frisbee is harder than throwing a ball, you’ll enjoy a different kind of fun.
Draw animals, people, or characters on the cardboard target and cut out the mouth area large enough for the frisbee to pass through.
That way, it looks like you’re tossing food into their mouths, creating a unique target.
Feel free to get creative with the drawings and try all kinds of variations!
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!
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.
Yo-yo fishing
Yo-yo fishing is a classic at night stalls and temple fairs.
There’s a hook at the end of the paper string, and you use it to snag the little rubber ring attached to the yo-yo water balloon and lift it out.
Since the string is made of paper, it will tear if it gets wet, so be careful to keep it dry, and lift slowly while considering the weight of the yo-yo.
darts
Let’s take cool darts and give them a fun, festive twist! Make the target using cardboard, Styrofoam, or similar materials.
A classic style where the points increase toward the center works well, but scattering various point values around the board is recommended so many people can play at once.
For the darts, make sure they’re safe for kids by matching the sticking method to the target material—tape, magnets, or hook-and-loop (Velcro) all work.
Drawing different pictures on the target will also grab children’s interest!
Handmade food stall
When you think of fair and festival events, the first thing that comes to mind is food stalls, right? How about making the stalls themselves out of cardboard? Not only the day of the festival—building the stall is fun too, so it’s perfect for building excitement and atmosphere leading up to the event.
It’s surprisingly easy: just combine a few large cardboard boxes to make the table section and attach the roof on top.
Let the little kids take charge of decorating the signs for takoyaki or cotton candy—they’ll have a blast.
If you have red cardboard, you could even make homemade lanterns!
Ball rolling game
The ball-rolling game is where you roll a ball over a bunch of paper cups lined up, and you get the prize in whichever cup the ball lands in.
Since all you do is roll the ball, it’s a festival game that even small children can enjoy.
You can put prizes in the paper cups, change the cup colors and make it a points-based game, or put winning tickets in only a few cups—feel free to get creative.
If you keep the prizes separate, you can get just the paper cups and a ball at a 100-yen shop, so it’s very easy to set up.
Goldfish scooping
Goldfish scooping—the classic sight at summer festivals and fair stalls.
Didn’t everyone try it at least once as a child? It’s also fun just to watch goldfish of various sizes, from red ones to black telescope-eye goldfish, gracefully swimming about.
And goldfish scooping really shows kids’ personalities: some plunge their poi into the water without hesitation, while others carefully survey the different fish and think hard about which one to scoop.
You don’t see it as often these days, but it’s something you’d love for them to experience at least once.