[Non-food] Cultural festival attractions: from classroom exhibits to stage events
Are you struggling to decide what to do for your school festival booth—other than food? Let’s energize the venue with unique ideas that are a bit different from the usual food stalls! From hands-on attractions like those at amusement parks, to photo spots, to performances your whole class can take on together, this article is packed with ideas that will win over your visitors.
We’ll also share helpful tips from preparation through day-of operations, so use this as a guide to create a booth that’s uniquely yours.
- Unusual attractions you can do in a classroom for a cultural or school festival
- [For High School Students] A roundup of recommended attractions for the school festival
- Cultural Festival: Ranking of Popular Booth Ideas
- [Middle School] Cultural Festival Attractions: A roundup of popular exhibits, games, and stage performances
- Ideas for stage events and attractions that will liven up a school festival
- Attraction Ideas for School Festivals That Only High Schoolers Can Pull Off?
- Games that rival street festivals and variety shows!? Crowd-pleasers for school cultural festivals
- Ideas for class projects at the school festival: A roundup of popular attractions
- [For Elementary Schools] Recommended Exhibits and Recreational Activities for a Cultural Festival
- [By Genre] Cultural Festival / School Festival Booth Catalog [2026]
- [Cultural Festival / School Festival Theme] Carefully Selected High-Impact Recommended Phrases!
- Festival booth menu items that can be served without cooking and without using fire
- A catalog of recommended festival booths for school culture festivals, with ideas that will shine on social media.
Stages (11–20)
I tried singing
“Utattemita,” the singing videos you often see on video-sharing sites.
If you just sing normally on a culture festival or school festival stage, it can end up feeling not much different from karaoke, but with proper equipment and lighting, it’s sure to get the crowd going.
Budget can make things tricky, but you could discuss it with the school, or if you have friends who are in bands, try consulting them.
It’s a glamorous stage event that, if you take part, will likely become a lifelong memory.
theater
When it comes to large-scale stage events that liven up a school-wide cultural festival, a play is hard to beat.
By using a big stage like the gym, you can put on a performance that moves a large audience.
It’s also a great way to build a strong sense of unity with your classmates or club members.
You can perform a script as-is, add your own twists, or present an original story.
Including relatable “school life” moments is also recommended.
Give this showcase—a true main event of any cultural festival—a try!
Comedy live show
When it comes to stage performances at a school festival, you can’t leave out comedy.
Show off your sense of humor to everyone around you.
It’s fine—and easy to understand—to adapt popular manzai or sketch routines, but creating your own original material would be ideal.
Since you’ll be performing at the festival, it might also be interesting to include school-related events that the audience can relate to.
Rather than going for something complicated, it’s important to focus on making it easy to understand.
Cross-dressing contest
At school festivals, fashion shows, beauty pageants, and Mr.
contests are the standard, right? But how about intentionally going off the beaten path and holding a cross-dressing contest instead—like a menswear look for girls and a womenswear look for boys? You might be surprised at how well some people suit the look, and it can really energize the event and get a great reaction.
Taking photos with the audience is also highly recommended.
Exhibition (1–10)
Ridiculously cool video
How about producing a video piece as your performance? You’ll need some preparation time to make the video, but on the day itself, all you have to do is press the play button and it’s done.
The idea is simple: string together clips based on the concept of doing everyday, ordinary actions in a cool way—something anyone can easily relate to.
Classics might include tossing trash into a bin without looking, or throwing an item to a friend who’s far away.
It’s not something you can nail in one try, so perseverance until you succeed is key to this project.
If you include the failed attempts as a blooper reel, the effort will feel even more rewarding.
LEGO brick art
LEGO bricks are all about freely creating shapes by combining small blocks; their simplicity is precisely what gives them immense potential.
How about making art with LEGO bricks and displaying it as an exhibit? Start by preparing a sketch or blueprint that defines the size and shape you want to build, and then assemble from there.
When creating three-dimensional pieces, you need to consider depth as well, so it’s best to begin with picture-like flat designs and gradually move on to more challenging builds.
Trick Art Exhibition
Trick art, an art form that uses optical illusions, has a mysterious charm that makes you keep looking at it even when you know it’s an illusion.
Simply displaying it as a painting is nice, but it might also be fun to set up large-scale trick art—like pieces that make it look as if a huge hole has opened up in the ground.
It would be enjoyable not only for classroom exhibits but also, with permission, to place them in various locations around the school.
It even feels like the artwork is only complete when you include viewers’ reactions, so ideally, you could set up cameras alongside the pieces as well.