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 kids can enjoy (21–30)
cutout
A long-time staple of Japanese festival stalls: kata-nuki (shape cutting).
Have you ever tried it? It’s a small, flat candy made from sugar or powder, etched with outlines of flowers, animals, and more.
You carefully cut along the lines, trying not to break the candy.
If you manage to cut out the shape cleanly, you win a prize.
Don’t get too bold—go slowly, or it’ll crack right apart!
Slack Out-style target game
You often see baseball players on TV shows testing their control by throwing balls at panels with numbered targets, like in a strikeout challenge.
The kids’ version of that game is called a target game.
The idea is the same as strikeout: you throw a ball at the numbered sections and see if you can hit them accurately.
Using light items like rubber balls makes it safe and fun even for small children.
Games that liven up a festival. Ideas kids can enjoy (31–40)
Balance game
A balance game made with paper plates and cardstock is a perfect festival activity that demands more focus and finesse than it looks.
Fold a paper plate and place cut pieces of cardstock on top to form the base.
Then stack cardstock parts taped together on the base.
The subtle wobble created by the plate’s curvature makes the balance precarious, so a careful touch is essential.
The tension of seeing how many pieces you can stack and how you read and respond to the wobble draws kids into deep concentration.
Since all the materials are paper, it’s lightweight, easy to handle, and safer, too.
From crafting to playing, you can enjoy the whole process, making it a hit for parents and children or groups of friends.
Cotton candy making
Cotton candy is something that almost always catches children’s eyes at festivals.
At large festivals, adults make it for them, or pre-made cotton candy is sold in bags, but you can buy a small cotton candy machine for a few thousand yen, and there are safe models that kids can use themselves.
If children can twirl the skewers on their own to make it, it would surely become one of the festival’s most popular attractions.
White cotton candy is nice, but if you use colored sugar crystals, you can make colorful and cute cotton candy.
Corinth game
Also known as a pachinko game, the classic Corinth game is something you often see at festivals.
You can win various prizes depending on the points for where the ball lands, and since you never know where the ball you launch will end up, you can enjoy the excitement right up to the end.
Although it has an image of being an old-fashioned pastime, it’s sometimes made as a summer vacation project, so it’s surprisingly familiar to kids today as well.
Small ones are fun to make yourself, but there are also places that rent out larger versions for a few thousand yen.
If your festival is on a larger scale, it might be worth taking the plunge and renting one.
Shaved ice making
When you think of festivals, especially summer festivals, shaved ice is a classic, right? Kids and adults alike have fun choosing from all the different flavors and can’t decide which one to get.
How about recreating that shaved ice stand you’d see at a festival stall? These days, various types of shaved ice machines are available.
You can rent professional-grade machines like the ones used at festival booths, but I think home-use machines are more than enough to enjoy it.
They’re colorful to look at, too, and really help build that festive, exciting atmosphere.
children’s portable shrine (for festivals)
When it comes to local festivals, the mikoshi is a must, isn’t it? The large mikoshi carried by adults is powerful and impressive to watch, but the ones carried by children, shouting in unison as they do their best, are adorably charming too.
Even children—by the upper grades of elementary school—can carry it steadily and seem quite dependable.
It’s also cute to see little kids pulling the mikoshi or walking alongside it while chanting “Wasshoi!”