Hiroshima Flower Festival
Symbol Flower Tower with Flame
Location(s)Hiroshima
Founded1977
Websitehttp://www.hiroshima-ff.com

The Hiroshima Flower Festival (ひろしまフラワーフェスティバル) is a flower festival held annually in Hiroshima, Japan.

Overview

The Hiroshima Flower Festival has been held every year since 1977 during Golden Week, from 3 May to 5 May. More than one million people take part in the festival each year.

The festival includes multiple stages for entertainment, shops, a small zoo, and other amusement attractions along Peace Boulevard and in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Many concerts, dancing shows, fashion shows, talk shows, and traditional and contemporary performances featuring local citizens and other events are held throughout the area. Locals also participate in a parade, and Yosakoi dance on Peace Boulevard.

History

The origin of the festival is the Japanese professional baseball Central League Champion parade for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp team in 1975. At the inaugural festival in 1977, Agnes Lum had to be escorted from the festival on a fire truck due to the number of fans overwhelming the event.[1]

Themes

The underlying themes of the festival are to:[2]

  1. Make Hiroshima full of flowers, greens, and music.
  2. Share the brightness and dignity of life with all people.
  3. Appeal for a warm-hearted cultural and personnel interchange from Hiroshima to the world.

Events

The key events of the festival are:[3]

Parades

  • Flower parade on May 3.
  • Kinsai (visit us) Yosakoi parade on May 5.

Concerts and performances

  • Multiple concerts and performances on twenty stages, and in seventy squares every day.
  • Candlelight services with peace messages and origami cranes
  • Mikoshi, Kagura and peace concerts are held at night.

Flower singer

  • A featured performer termed the Flower singer was arranged to sing the theme song each year up to 2005. From 2006 the Flower singer was replaced with Flower Festival special guests, and other guests were also noted. These performers have been:
Year Flower singer Other artists
1977, 1978Naomi Sagara
1979, 1980, 1985Yoko Seri
1981Junko Sakurada
1982Hitomi Ishikawa
1983Ikue Sakakibara
1984Hidemi Ishikawa
1986Judy Ongg
1987Miho Nakayama
1988Yū Hayami
1989Noriko Sakai
1990Tomomi Nishimura
1991Fuyumi Sakamoto
1992Eriko Tamura
1993Reiko Kato
1994Oyunaa
1995Marcia
1996Ranran Suzuki
1997Yoshie Hayasaka
1998Kim Yeon-ja
1999Hikaru Nishida
2000Kumiko Endo
2001Miki Sakai
2002Wakako Shimazaki
2003Hitomi Shimatani
2004Sonim
2005Sayaka Kamizono
YearFF special guestsOther guests
2006MAX, Koriki Choshu, Hinoi Team
2007Masashi Akiyama, Takako Uehara, Younha
2008Ai Kawashima, Kousuke Atari, TDR characters
2009Jero, Kaori Mizumori, Yokota-KaguradanAki-Gakudan, Osedo Chishima, Takashi & Chiharu, Sayaka Kamizono, Katsuhiko & Maco, Kentaro Kihara, Takahiro Miyazaki, CNA, DSC, Tomonari Takano, Takarabune, Chiharu Tamaki, trunk, Shoji Narita, Mebius, Kenta Morimoto, Anri Kumaki, The generous, Scandal, Miho Fukuhara, Lil'B

References

  1. 元祖“黒船グラドル”アグネス・ラム来日騒動 [The uproar of the arrival in Japan of the original "foreign gravure idol" Agnes Lum (page 3)] (in Japanese). Nikkan Gendai. March 7, 2014. Archived from the original on November 13, 2017. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  2. "Hiroshima Flower Festival data". Archived from the original on 2009-04-11. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
  3. "Hiroshima Flower Festival data". Archived from the original on 2009-04-11. Retrieved 2009-10-24.


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