By OSAMU HIURA/ Staff Writer
April 20, 2023 at 07:00 JST
The Yosakoi Soran Festival held in Sapporo in June 2019 before the novel coronavirus pandemic attracted 2.11 million visitors. (Nobuhiro Shirai)
SAPPORO—The mask mandate has been lifted for the Yosakoi Soran Festival here, and dancers from Hong Kong and South Korea will join the early summer event for the first time in four years.
The 32nd “yosakoi” dance event will be held from June 7 to 11 at Odori Koen park and 12 other venues in the Hokkaido capital. About 240 teams will participate.
“We hope that dancers will entertain spectators with their energetic performances, including their facial expressions,” said a representative of the festival’s executive committee.
Dance teams were required to wear masks as a precaution against COVID-19 when the festival was held last year.
According to an outline plan released on April 6, floor seats in front of stages, which cost a fee last year to reduce spectator congestion, will be free to the public this year except for certain time slots.
Tickets for balcony seats and special viewing seats for parades will be sold from April 23.
Modeled after the Yosakoi Festival in Kochi, the dance event in Sapporo started in 1992 to feature the traditional “Soran Bushi” folk song that originated in the nation’s northernmost main island.
The Sapporo fest inspired other yosakoi dance events held across Japan.
Although the number of visitors reached 2.18 million in the peak year in Sapporo, the figure dropped to 1.4 million last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of dance teams joining the event this year will be about 15 percent lower than pre-pandemic levels.
The executive committee said connections with local communities are important for the continuation of the festival.
Starting this year, competing dance teams will be given extra points based on their contributions to their communities, in addition to evaluations of judges and points earned for their performances.
The more they participate in community services, such as visiting welfare facilities, joining trash-picking activities and attending local events, the more points they can earn, the committee said.
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