THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
May 4, 2022 at 17:09 JST
The Hakata Dontaku Port Festival parade gets under way in Fukuoka’s Hakata Ward for the first time in three years on May 3. (Jun Kaneko)
FUKUOKA--An estimated 400,000 people lined the streets of this western Japan city for the start of the Hakata Dontaku Port Festival, being held after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two-day event kicked off May 3 in Hakata Ward as a harbinger for the early arrival of summer.
Held under clear blue skies, participants dressed in a variety of costumes danced and played music as they paraded through the main thoroughfare in central Fukuoka.
Fine weather is also forecast on May 4.
Organizers capped the number of performers and took other precautions against the novel coronavirus. Seventeen stages were set up and 365 groups participated May 3. Both figures were roughly half the usual sizes.
The last festival, held three years ago, drew about 2 million visitors over two days, according to the Fukuoka Citizen’s Festival Promotion Association, the event’s organizer.
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