![[Cafe × ___] Perfect for school festivals! A collection of cafe concept ideas](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eiGLn14JvJo/hqdefault.jpg)
[Cafe × ___] Perfect for school festivals! A collection of cafe concept ideas
When setting up a booth at a school or cultural festival, a café is highly recommended.
It’s popular and you can create originality by combining various concepts.
However, when you actually start discussing what kind of café to make, you might find it surprisingly hard to come up with ideas—or you might end up with too many to choose from.
So in this article, we’ll introduce a whole range of café concepts perfect for cultural festivals.
Try launching a café with a concept that no other class or group is doing, and make sure to delight all your visitors!
[Cafe × ____] Perfect for school festivals! A collection of café concept ideas (1–10)
Maid café
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq0g4UEJELA/A maid café where staff members serve customers while fully acting as maids.
In Japan, especially around Akihabara, maid cafés with a variety of concepts are popular.
It could be fun to boldly try running a maid café at your school festival.
Having authentic maid outfits would be ideal, but even just adding frilly hair accessories, aprons, or bunny and cat ears can create a maid-like atmosphere.
It might also be fun to give the menu items maid café-style names like “For the Master: ___” or “Kyunkyun ___.”
Planetarium Cafe
Why are the night skies in Hokkaido and Okinawa so beautiful, I wonder? Is it because smog gathers over big cities? If it’s a class where people who love stars get together, a planetarium café could be great.
With blackout curtains and a planetarium machine, it’s actually pretty easy to set up.
You can make the café menu star-themed, too.
For example, star-shaped cookies, crescent moon ice pops, Milky Way chiffon cake, and a “star drink” that uses tapioca pearls as little stars—anything star-related is fair game! A planetarium in an air-conditioned room is perfect for summer!
Board game cafe
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxI0OYNlVKx/In recent years, board game cafés have been skyrocketing in popularity.
Their appeal lies in the ability to choose from a wide range of board games—from two-player titles like Battle Line to party games for larger groups like One Night Werewolf—that fit the vibe of a school festival.
It might be even better to run a survey beforehand to find out what kinds of games everyone wants to play! Of course, famous games are great, but intentionally picking some lesser-known titles could be a hit too!
Dagashi Cafe
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg9SXPxv_8y/In recent years, retro items have become popular, haven’t they? How about opening a dagashi cafe? A dagashi cafe is, literally, a cafe where you can enjoy dagashi—traditional Japanese penny candies and snacks.
Since each item is inexpensive, one of the appeals is that you can offer a wide variety.
Try stocking everything from classic dagashi everyone knows to lesser-known, rare finds.
To let customers enjoy the nostalgic atmosphere of an old-fashioned candy shop, it could also be fun to provide games like lotteries and raffles.
Ghibli Café
Studio Ghibli films are loved by everyone.
From My Neighbor Totoro, which contains no depictions of conflict, to Kiki’s Delivery Service, which evokes the feel of a coming-of-age film, there’s no end to the masterpieces you could name.
How about a concept cafe themed around Ghibli films? Ponyo and Totoro cookies, a No-Face cake, drinks reminiscent of the characters from Laputa—just creating the menu would be so much fun.
Kiki’s outfit from Kiki’s Delivery Service is relatively easy to cosplay, so it’d be great if everyone could wear matching items.
A retro-style classic kissaten (traditional Japanese coffee shop)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CmyLXhyvTIk/Originally, the term “jun-kissa” referred to a purely non-alcoholic coffee shop.
However, in recent years it’s increasingly been used with the nuance of “a genuine café with a retro atmosphere that attracts true coffee aficionados.” So how about opening a café themed around that retro, authentic jun-kissa vibe? You could play slightly old-school jazz as background music, use indirect lighting… It might also be nice to serve nostalgic items like firm, old-fashioned custard pudding.
Give it some thought and create a one-of-a-kind jun-kissa of your own!
Fantasy Cafe
Another recommendation is a fantasy-themed café that combines the currently popular quizzes and puzzles with a fantasy world.
It’s fine to draw the fantasy elements from the worlds of Harry Potter or Alice in Wonderland! When serving drinks at the café, adding a small puzzle will boost that school-festival excitement.
If customers can’t crack the code on the cookie box and can’t eat the cookies unless they solve it, it’s sure to fire everyone up.
For simple puzzles, refer to books on riddles and puzzle-solving.