🏮 Sayama Irumagawa Tanabata Matsuri

狭山入間川七夕まつり

Sayama, Saitama (Sayama City Station West Exit Citizen Plaza) · Every year on the 1st Saturday and Sunday of August

Summer festivalFood stallsBon odoriTraditional performing arts

327 days to go
Rooms around Sayama, Saitama fill up while the festival is on.

The Sayama Irumagawa Tanabata Festival is held every year on the first Saturday and Sunday of August in the Irumagawa district of Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture, and is counted as one of the three great Tanabata festivals of the Kanto region. Organized by the Sayama City Tourism Association and run by the Sayama City Irumagawa Tanabata Festival Executive Committee, it centers on Tanabata-dori (Saitama Prefectural Route 340, Nakashinden Irumagawa Line) in front of Sayama City Station, where over 130 bamboo decorations submitted by shops and citizens line about 2 km of the roadside, attracting roughly 400,000 visitors annually. The origins of the event are unclear in some respects, but as a Tanabata festival it is thought to be older than Sendai Tanabata, and records remain showing that decorations were put up at shops and inns in the old Irumagawa Village in the mid-Edo period. In the past, there was also a custom of floating bamboo decorations down the Irumagawa River to pray for a good harvest and good health. With the establishment of Sayama City in 1954, the current framework of holding the festival under the auspices of the Sayama City Tourism Association was set. The main venues are the Citizen Plaza at the west exit of Sayama City Station and the Festival Plaza. On Saturday evening, about 3,000 fireworks are launched from the Irumagawa riverbed in a summer fireworks display, and rapid firing of large shells is also performed. In addition, on Saturday afternoon there is a drum and fife band parade by elementary school students and a folk song procession, and on Sunday evening an Awa Odori contest is held, along with a bamboo decoration contest.

Getting there

The main venues are the Citizen Plaza at the west exit of Sayama City Station and the Festival Plaza in front of the Seibu Bus Tanabata-dori Shopping Street stop. The festival is held mainly along Tanabata-dori from in front of Sayama City Station.