[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.
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- [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.
Exhibits (11–20)
Mosaic art
Mosaic art is a technique where you arrange image materials like tiles to create a large piece.
From a distance it looks like a single artwork, and when you get closer you realize it’s made from many images—that surprise is part of the fun.
The more materials you have and the wider the range of colors, the larger and more beautiful the piece you can aim for, so be mindful about thorough preparation.
As the number of images increases, placement becomes more challenging, so using dedicated software is recommended for designing large works.
To produce a high-quality final piece, it’s important for the team to work together and gather a large collection of images.
Umbrella Sky
This is about linking colorful vinyl umbrellas together with string to create a beautiful decoration.
The key to making it look vibrant is to prepare several strands, each made by connecting many umbrellas—so be sure to have plenty on hand.
Choosing which colors to connect is also important; arranging them to form a rainbow-like gradient is an easy-to-understand approach.
Another point is that, although the idea is simple, there are many details to refine: how dense to make each strand, how many to create, and where to display them.
Diorama Exhibition
A diorama exhibition that realistically recreates towns and buildings.
Dioramas are made from a variety of materials such as styrofoam, clay, and plastic.
Some are even entirely made of paper, known as paper dioramas.
Try building and displaying a diorama of local landmarks, like a castle or roadside station near your school.
The finely detailed diorama pieces on display will likely captivate viewers so much that they’ll lose track of time.
It’s also recommended to run trains through the diorama, light up buildings, or place plastic model cars.
Coming up with the setting and backstory for the diorama town sounds fun too.
Photo spot
A great attraction you can set up anywhere on campus is a photo spot.
Create a place that makes people want to take pictures in front of dazzling decorations or eye-catching objects.
It’s also a good idea to use themes of friendship and romance to help classmates and couples grow closer.
By encouraging people to post their vibrant photos on social media, you’ll make the school festival even more exciting.
Prepare colorful lighting and illustrations to create a popular photo spot! Why not try an attraction that every student in the school can enjoy?
Cardboard art
Cardboard, commonly used for delivering packages, is also excellent as a crafting material thanks to its sturdy structure.
Depending on your approach, it’s possible to create fairly large objects.
You can enjoy a variety of techniques: leveraging its original linear form to bond pieces together or slot them with cuts, or first crushing it to soften it and then assembling it to create curves.
A display featuring multiple large cardboard objects would likely make quite a strong impression.
Showa Retro Exhibition
In recent years, the spotlight on social media has been on “Showa retro.” Showa retro refers to retro items like products and home appliances with designs no longer in use today.
They’re especially popular among younger generations who aren’t familiar with them, calling them “cute” and “refreshingly new.” So how about gathering Showa retro items and holding a Showa Retro Exhibition? Try searching your home or relatives’ houses to find nostalgic pieces.
Another appeal is how photogenic they are—you’ll want to post them on social media.
food sample
How about making our own food samples—like the ones often displayed at restaurant entrances—and exhibiting them as artworks? These days, DIY kits are available, making it easier to create them.
Setting up a hands-on corner where visitors can try making samples themselves would make it even more exciting.
