By TAKESHI SHIMAWAKI/ Staff Writer
June 14, 2023 at 18:33 JST
The Kobe Luminarie in Kobe in 2019 (Takaharu Yagi)
For the first time in four years, downtown Kobe will be lit up with dazzling displays on cold winter nights as the Kobe Luminarie will mark its return, according to Kobe city government sources.
The event was usually held in December before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it will be moved to January next year.
It is a winter illumination event to remember the victims of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake and pray for recovery in the affected areas.
The earthquake occurred on Jan. 17, 1995.
Some details of the festival will also be changed, including forgoing the 270-meter-long illumination called the “corridor of lights” to seek a more sustainable way to hold the popular event.
The Kobe Luminarie’s organizing committee, which comprises representatives from the city government and other organizations, has held the event in December every year since 1995.
But the pandemic forced the suspension of the event from 2020.
The city government and the Hyogo prefectural government have provided a total of 200 million yen ($1.43 million) to help stage the event, according to sources.
The total cost for the festival has exceeded 500 million yen, sources say.
Contributions from companies have been decreasing, according to the sources.
As traffic was strictly restricted around the promenade site, some nearby shops said the event prevented customers from coming to their stores during the year-end peak shopping season.
This time, the organizers plan to hold the festival in late January, after the “1.17 Gathering,” an event to mourn the victims of the earthquake on the anniversary day, is held.
Instead of creating the “corridor of lights,” organizers plan to disperse illuminations over multiple sites so traffic restrictions will cover smaller areas.
The organizers will examine how these changes will affect the event.
They will also consider more sustainable ways to hold the festival heading toward the 30th anniversary of the earthquake in 2025.
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