Wonderful school festival / cultural festival

[For school cultural festivals] Recommended maze ideas and traps

[For school cultural festivals] Recommended maze ideas and traps

Last updated:2025/5/8

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked as a kindergarten teacher for 10 years and as an after-school childcare instructor for 7 years, then took a position as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I engaged in activities that introduced Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational activities, working with many children. Later, through freelance writing, planning, and editing at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and sharing. Drawing on the perspective cultivated in the field of education and my experience as an editor, I provide practical information with an emphasis on both input and output, mainly in areas related to music and children. My hobbies include instruments, singing, handicrafts, toys, drawing, traditional games, the outdoors, and books. My special skill is spinning-top tricks.
Deputy Editor of RAG MUSICsasashina
Deputy Editor of RAG MUSIC. JFC-certified fact-checker. I’m Sasashina, a mom currently raising an elementary schooler and a preschooler. During my student years at Kyoto College of Science and Technology, I studied a wide range of fields including sound, lighting, and video technology, building a foundation in comprehensive stage production and creative expression. After graduation, I joined a music production company, where I still work, consistently building experience in production and engaging in a variety of music-centered tasks. Currently, I mainly handle articles for children, drawing on what I’ve learned about parenting and what I feel and discover through daily interactions with my kids. I hope my work can be of help to you, even in a small way!

If you’re wondering what to do for your school festival exhibit, how about creating a maze?

Designing an ordinary maze can be tough, but if you want to get creative and really energize the festival, this is a must-see.

We’ve packed in ideas for traps to hide inside the maze and concepts for full-fledged maze designs—ideas that will make it an unforgettable experience for both the creators and the visitors.

From photo-worthy fun to surprising twists, this collection is full of ideas that are as enjoyable to make as they are to explore!

[For Cultural Festivals and School Festivals] Recommended Maze Ideas and Traps (1–10)

Haunted House Maze

[Experiment] What happens to scaredy-cats if the number of ghosts in the Haunted Labyrinth is doubled? Will they faint?

Haunted House Maze

When it comes to cultural festivals and school festivals, is it a haunted house? A maze? Want to do both? Then why not combine them.

It might take twice as long to create and prepare, but if you’re a student aiming to make this a once-in-a-lifetime, unforgettable festival, it’s worth the challenge.

You could take inspiration from a haunted house modeled after an abandoned hospital, like the Scary Labyrinth at Fuji-Q Highland, and fuse a haunted house with a maze in your own way.

It’s an attraction that both the creators and the guests who play it will enjoy to the fullest.

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Play a sound effect with a motion sensor

[Free Sound Effects Campaign - Part 2] Spine-chilling! A terrifying melody to play on summer nights!

Play a sound effect with a motion sensor

Recommended for students planning exhibits for school cultural festivals! Why not play spine-chilling horror sound effects in the background of your attraction? They’re available as free downloads, so they’re easy to use.

Classic haunted house and ghost story effects are great, but if you combine a giant maze with horror BGM, you can deliver an even more terrifying experience! You might also try creative touches like using motion sensors.

Both creators and participants are sure to have fun, and it’ll become an unforgettable memory! Give it a try.

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Abandoned Hospital Maze

Fun Abandoned Hospital

Abandoned Hospital Maze

If you’re thinking about a maze for your school festival, why not incorporate an “abandoned hospital”? Abandoned hospitals are a common setting for ghostly attractions.

An empty hospital is scary all by itself.

For a school festival, you could place nurses and doctors with obvious blood effects to give people a fright.

Paint the maze walls white and prepare hospital-like props such as beds and medical charts.

The anxiety of getting lost and the fear of the abandoned hospital will surely make it a hit.

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Trick Maze

“Trick Maze” at Energy Land, Part 1

Trick Maze

A trick maze is, as the name suggests, a maze that includes various tricks along the way; you can’t proceed unless you solve them, giving it an escape-room-like feel.

Coming up with the tricks and actually building the mechanisms may be challenging, but if you pull it off, it’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser! When creating the tricks and puzzles, set an overarching concept and build them along a coherent story to craft a polished, immersive experience.

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Puzzle Maze

The unbeatable game with a 0% clear rate, “Fortress of Despair”: The theory that you can beat it if you try enough times.

Puzzle Maze

Starting with Takuji Izawa, as well as Yukari Kono and Nanaumi Ito, there seem to be more and more University of Tokyo student celebrities lately.

I often see puzzle-solving shows and variety programs where people compete with intellect and knowledge.

Everyone loves puzzles, don’t they! So how about using “puzzle-solving” as a key point in the maze? I think it would be as exciting as an escape room! Please include a variety of puzzles, such as quiz-type and cipher-type.

Since it’s just a checkpoint, I recommend not making the problems too difficult.

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Mirror House

[Silver Screen] A face-check manufacturing machine! With 'Mirror Spray,' you can turn anything into a 'mirror'!?

Mirror House

Do you know the climactic “mirror house showdown” in Bruce Lee’s masterpiece Enter the Dragon? You think the enemy is right in front of you, but it turns out to be just a reflection in the mirror; you think he escaped to the right, but he actually moved to the left—one heart-pounding twist after another.

How about incorporating that mirror house as part of a maze? If you don’t have enough real mirrors, you can use mirror spray and cleverly treat plywood or other boards.

It would also make for a highly Instagrammable photo spot!

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Athletic Maze

One of Japan’s Largest: Take on the Giant Maze! Trick Maze at Toshimaen

Athletic Maze

If you combine an obstacle course with a maze, it could be an attraction that not only little kids but also middle and high schoolers—and even adults—can enjoy! If you’re building the maze in a classroom, you could create obstacles by arranging desks and chairs, or by bringing in balance beams and vaulting boxes from the gym.

If you have enough time and budget, you could even build an obstacle course from scratch using wood.

There aren’t many culture festival attractions that require physical activity, so this would offer a slightly different vibe from the others.

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