20th YOSAKOI SORAN Festival （YOSAKOI ソーラン祭り） 2011 in Sapporo

The "YOSAKOI SORAN Festival" is a big festival held in Sapporo city from June 8th to 12th this year, 2011, representing Hokkaido in early summer.

This is Odori Park, one of the festival venues. The lilacs are in full bloom and very beautiful!

So are white azaleas!

There are some food corners in the park during the festival.

You can eat local cuisine and drink fresh Sapporo beer!

They are enjoying drinking beer even during the day time!!!!

Actually more than three thousand dance teams take part in this festival every year and the total spectators were more than two million. 

There are only two dancing rules.

1. Dancers must hold naruko, small wooden clappers, in their hands.
2. The music must incorporate the melody of Soran Bushi, which is a traditional fisherman's song in Hokkaido.

Each team can perform their original dance.　We can watch the festival on local TV station every year.


I enjoyed their dance performance in a 8-chome festival stage in the park.

Every team can design their own colorful costumes.

They can also design their own distinctive and unique dance set to their own original live music!

Participants in the festival are not professional dancers, but rather ordinary citizens such as office workers, teachers, housewives, students, and even children.

Participation in the YOSAKOI SORAN Festival is open to everybody, regardless of age and nationality.

Look at the powerful performance!

They are from Russia! I like their costumes!

They are from Taiwan! I was impressed with their magnificent acrobatic show!

I love this team named "En" from Hokkaido University.

Wow! Wow! Wow! 

20 years ago a student from Hokkaido University went to a city called Kochi, where he saw the local YOSAKOI Festival. He was so moved and wanted to bring the dance to HOKKAIDO. That's the beginning of this festival!

Now this festival represents Hokkaido in early summer!

After enjoying watching their performance, I came back to the food corner and

enjoyed drinking beer!

The festival is held until 12th on Sunday.

Why don't you come to Sapporo and enjoy the festival?

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