About the Festival
What Is Yokai Bon Odori?
A bon odori with a twist: instead of the usual yukata-only dress code, Yokai Bon Odori invites everyone in its ticketed area to come as a yokai — a spirit, monster or trickster from Japanese folklore.
The Short Version
Bon odori is a centuries-old style of community dance performed around a central tower (yagura) during Obon, the summer season when Japanese tradition holds that ancestral spirits return to visit the living. Most bon odori are neighborhood affairs: a tower, a circle of dancers, taiko drums, and yukata.
Yokai Bon Odori borrows that structure and reframes it. Its ticketed "Yagura Stage" area asks visitors to arrive as a yokai, in a yukata or jinbei, or wearing official festival merchandise. The result sits somewhere between a folklore festival, a costume party, and a night market — with live bands, DJ sets and a costume contest built around the dancing rather than replacing it.
A Short History
The event began in 2019 in Fussa City, on the western edge of the Tokyo metro area. In its more recent editions it has been staged at GREEN SPRINGS, a shopping, hotel and green-space complex in Tachikawa, where the 2026 edition returns for a third straight day-count run of three days in October. It's organized by the Yokai Bon Odori Executive Committee.
What Makes It Different From a Regular Bon Odori
- The dress code is the headline, not an afterthought. Most festivals suggest a yukata; this one asks you to transform into something else entirely.
- It runs later and louder. Alongside the traditional dance circle and ohayashi music, the schedule includes artist live sets and a DJ-driven "Yokai Disco."
- It has its own folklore program. Past editions have featured a costume contest, "Yokai Sage" discussion sessions, and a night parade styled after the Hyakki Yagyo — the mythical "Night Parade of a Hundred Demons."
Free vs. Ticketed
Not everything requires a ticket. The food stalls, merchandise area and general grounds (sometimes called the Yokai Food Village) are free to enter. A ticket is only required for the Yagura Stage area, where the dancing, live performances and DJ sets take place, and where the dress code applies.