One festival can be seen on any day of the Expo: the Aomori Nebuta, which will be on permanent display. One festival has a date: the Izumisano Danjiri Festival on Sunday 27 June 2027. Both come from the first event list that the GREEN×EXPO Association (the Japan Association for the International Horticultural Expo 2027, Yokohama) published on 15 September 2026.
The Association says more festivals and traditional performing arts from around Japan will come, but no groups have been named yet.
The Association’s own programme: the Omatsuri Saijiki Project
This runs for the whole Expo. The announcement describes farming rituals and traditional performing arts staged in parts of the venue that show farmland and the Japanese view of nature, in a form visitors can join. Two things are named so far:
- A permanent display of Aomori Nebuta. Dates for a parade, when the float moves, are still being arranged.
- Events held with festival and performing-arts groups from around Japan. No groups or dates yet.
Where the Nebuta will stand, and how many floats there will be, is not stated.
Nine local-government events with dates
Eleven local governments have confirmed events (only those cleared for publication are counted). Nine appear in the appendix with dates. A circle marks those the Association files under “tradition, local events, festivals, product fairs and tourism promotion”.
| Date (2027) | Event | Organiser | Where | Filed under festivals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 March | To be announced | Hamamatsu City | Event Hall (provisional name) | ○ |
| 26–28 March | Tahara flower event | Tahara City, Aichi, and JA Aichi Minami | Grand Event Plaza (provisional name) | |
| 27 March | To be announced | Aichi executive committee for the Expo | Event Hall | |
| 20–21 April | Kishiwada “Bamboo Innovation” | Kishiwada City | Event Hall | ○ |
| 15 May | Chiba Prefecture Day stage event (provisional) | Chiba Prefecture | Event Hall | ○ |
| 27 June | Izumisano Danjiri Festival | Izumisano City | Grand Event Plaza | ○ |
| 1–3 July (dates being arranged) | Fukushima flowers event (provisional title) | Fukushima Prefecture | Event Hall | |
| 30–31 July | Saitama City promotion event | Saitama City | Event Hall | |
| 11–12 September | Kawasaki Day (provisional title) | Kawasaki City | Event Hall |
A “host local governments’ week” by Kanagawa Prefecture and Yokohama City is named in the announcement, but no dates are given.
Kishiwada is known for its own danjiri festival, but the title in the appendix is about bamboo, and danjiri are not mentioned. Hamamatsu’s event on 22 March has no details yet.
The Grand Event Plaza is about 800 square metres; the Event Hall has about 300 seats. The danjiri will be in the plaza, the larger of the two. The announcement does not say whether it is covered.
Seeing the same festivals at home
| Festival | When it is held at home | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Aomori Nebuta Festival | 2–7 August every year, with an eve festival on the 1st. Children’s and large floats on the 2nd and 3rd, about 20 large floats on the 4th to 6th, a daytime parade on the 7th followed by fireworks and floats on the water at Aomori Port | Central Aomori City |
| Izumisano autumn festivals | Every October. Fifteen pulled danjiri, two children’s danjiri, two yagura and three carried danjiri go around the city; dates differ by district | Izumisano City, Osaka |
The Aomori festival falls during the Expo, so you could see the display in Yokohama and the moving floats in Aomori in August. The Izumisano festivals come in October, after the Expo closes on 26 September.
Float numbers and times are from the 2026 guide and will be updated when the 2027 guide is out. The tourism association’s page does not give dates by district.
Our take
If you want to pick a day for a festival, 27 June is the only choice so far. It is a Sunday in the rainy season, and the venue is a plaza, not a hall with seats. Until a wet-weather plan is announced, we would not build a trip around that one day alone.
The Nebuta is the opposite: a permanent display means any day works. Once parade dates are announced, those days will be crowded. People who want to see the float move will go then, and people who want time with the display can go on other days.
The announcement puts local festivals and traditional culture up front, yet only one event in the appendix is clearly a festival. The list will change a great deal once the groups in the Omatsuri Saijiki Project are named.
Not announced yet
- Where the Nebuta will be displayed, how many floats, and the parade dates
- The festival and performing-arts groups in the Omatsuri Saijiki Project, and their dates
- Times, the number of danjiri and the wet-weather plan for the Izumisano Danjiri Festival
- What Hamamatsu City will hold on 22 March
- Dates for the Kanagawa and Yokohama week
- Whether any of these need a reservation
For each country’s ceremony and performances, see the National Day calendar; for choosing a month, see when to go.