🏮 Hakata Dontaku

博多どんたく

Fukuoka (Dontaku Plaza) · Every year on 3 and 4 May

Traditional performing arts

231 days to go
Rooms around Fukuoka fill up while the festival is on.

The Fukuoka Citizens' Festival Hakata Dontaku Minato Matsuri is held in Fukuoka City every year on May 3 and 4. Organized by the Fukuoka Citizens' Festival Promotion Association, it claims the largest attendance of any event during the Golden Week period. Along with Hakata Gion Yamakasa and the Hakozaki Shrine Hojoya, it is one of the festivals representative of Fukuoka and Hakata. The festival's origins go back to the Hakata Matsubayashi, an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan. The oldest record of it dates to 1595, and in the Edo period it was performed as a New Year greeting event for the Kuroda clan, lords of Fukuoka Domain. After being banned once in the Meiji era, it went through the 1946 Hakata Reconstruction Festival and has been held on May 3 and 4 to coincide with Constitution Memorial Day since 1949. Highlights include performances by various groups known as dontaku-tai, and a parade on Meiji-dori along the Dontaku Hiroba led by the Hakata Matsubayashi. Also of note are Nishitetsu's LED-illuminated flower cars, a marching festival, street stages on Hakata Ekimae-dori, and the May 4 Soodori. A eve festival is held on May 2.

Getting there

The nearest stations are JR Hakata Station or Subway Hakata Station. The venues are Hakata Ekimae-dori and the various performance stages, within walking distance of the station.