About the Festival
Established in 2020, Toyooka Theater Festival is a city-wide theater festival that maintains a strong connection with tourism and community development efforts. In addition to conventional theater venues, the festival extends its stages to locations throughout the city, including the hot spring town, coastal areas, highlands, and even the traditional wooden community stages found at shrines. More unexpected locations emerge as performance venues with each passing year.
In 2025, the festival’s reach expanded across the entire Tajima region, featuring a diverse lineup of 124 groups from both Japan and overseas—ranging from international guest artists and regional theater troupes to captivating street performers. The festival has become a major destination that draws audiences from across the country, consistently exceeding the expectations of performing arts enthusiasts.
Marking its 7th year, the festival is scheduled to take place from Friday, September 18 to Sunday, September 27. This year's schedule includes a five-day holiday period, making it more convenient than ever to visit and fully immerse yourself in the festivities.
The program lineup will be announced in due course. Please stay tuned!
Oriza Hirata
Toyooka Theater Festival 2026 is officially underway. Now in our third year of full-scale operations since the pandemic, the festival has grown, both in name and in substance, into one of Japan’s largest performing arts events. Our goal is to become a central hub for the performing arts in Asia—a festival that artists from around the world aspire to join.
With an increasing number of community-led initiatives, the festive atmosphere has truly taken root throughout the region. Professional College of Arts and Tourism continues to attract talented students from across the country. Furthermore, communication education utilizing theatrical methods is spreading nationwide, with Toyooka as its heart. This deep-rooted cultural foundation is something we take great pride in.
With art and tourism as our starting points, we hope to create another unforgettable festival this year that brings joy to all who visit.
Hiroyuki Takamiya
Founded in 2020, the Toyooka Theater Festival enters its seventh season in 2026.
This festival is more than just a celebration of the performing arts. From the historic hot spring streets of Kinosaki and the stunning shores of the Sea of Japan to the highlands, ski resorts, and traditional rural outdoor stages—the festival transforms the very landscape of the Tajima and Toyooka regions into a living theater. It is a world-class, "stroll-style" festival that breathes in harmony with local community development.
Building on last year's theme of "Performance, Connection, and Celebration (En)," the 2026 festival aims to expand these "connections" even further. We are striving to create an "international festival" that is more borderless and vibrant than ever before.
As we prepare for the September opening, we are working with a diverse array of artists from Japan and around the world to craft moments of "wonder" that can only be experienced here. We appreciate your patience as we finalize the full program lineup.
Encounter unexpected expressions in unexpected places, and feel the pulse of this land. We look forward to welcoming you in September 2026 to a new, even more profound Toyooka Theater Festival.
The Toyooka Theater Festival started in 2020 as a performing-arts festival primarily focused on theater and dance. The festival serves as a platform for artists to create and showcase their work, while also providing opportunities for visitors and residents to engage with diverse cultures and values, aiming to become a space for international exchange.
Furthermore, the Toyooka Theater Festival maintains a strong connection with tourism and community development efforts. It endeavored to give back to the local community, by promoting travel, conducting trials and demonstrations of public transportation, introducing a local currency, fostering programs that work closely with the tourism industry, and developing programs and workshops that involve local residents.
These efforts have been positively received, with the festival being awarded the Tourism 2021 Sports Culture Tourism Award, Tourism Award (Sports Agency, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan Tourism Agency); the Special Award at the 20th Kansai Zaikai Seminar (Kansai Association of Corporate Executives); and the 2023 Furusato-zukuri Grand Prize Group Award (Commendation by the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications).
Through our collaboration with the Professional College of Arts and Tourism (established in Toyooka City in 2021), we will engage in academic analysis and impact assessments to contribute even further to the local community.
A Theater Festival that Swirls and Connects
The festival has initiated various collaborative endeavors with businesses and organizations, including pilot schemes to ease travel between venues, the introduction of a local currency, and partnership with the local university.
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水田雅也『シンボル玉入れ』2023年 ©︎トモカネアヤカ Come together and interact, both the audience and the citizens.
In addition to offering a diverse lineup of performances by artists from Japan and overseas, the festival creates opportunities for various people to engage in dialogue. The night market and Meeting Spots serve as platforms for local residents, visiting theater goers, and artists to connect with each other.
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©︎トモカネアヤカ Developing New Initiatives to Connect with the Community
The festival involves the local community not only through their participation as support staff but also through the development of original goods which incorporate the area’s specialties and the offering of programs that are anchored in the region. Our goal is to engage a wide audience, providing ways to enjoy the festival which are not limited to conventional ways of experiencing theater.
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Utilize local community currency
To create a system where feelings of empathy stimulate the local economy, we have introduced a local currency for the festival. The currency can be used to purchase official goods and is also accepted at the night market and participating stores in the area.
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©︎トモカネアヤカ Collaboration with Students.
The Professional College of Arts and Tourism, established in Toyooka in 2021, is the first public university in Japan where one can study theater and dance in depth. As a part of their practical learning, students participate in the Toyooka Theater Festival, enriching the festival with their unique perspectives.
The “Toyooka Theater Festival Support Coin” is a local currency which creates a system where feelings of empathy and gratitude become central to the circulation of the local economy. The unit of currency is a CLAP, with one CLAP equal to one yen. The currency can be used at participating stores by scanning a QR code and making a payment through an online transaction.
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Constituent Organizations
- Community Art Center Platz, a non-profit organization
- General Incorporated Association Toyooka Tourism Innovation
- Toyooka Tourism Council
- Hyogo Prefecture Tajima Prefectural Government
- Toyooka Chamber of Commerce and Industry
- Toyooka city society of commerce and industry
- Toyooka City
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Secretariat
- Tourism Policy Division, Toyooka City Hall
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