The Straw Art Festival was held on 30 and 31 August at Kamisekigata Park in Nishigama-ku, Niigata City. The Straw Art Festival began in 2006 when the Iwamuro Onsen Tourist Association and Musashino Art University collaborated to display artworks made from rice straw, and in 2008 it became the Straw Art Festival organised by Niigata City, an event that has continued to the present day.

The straw art exhibition is open until the end of October, but since it is a festival, I went to the Kamiyan Lagoon Park on 31 August.

But I arrived at around 16:00 and when I looked at the sign, I saw that the event time had ended (tears).

Food and drink booths were being cleared out. Shame!

But straw art does not run away.

This year's exhibition features five major artworks.

'Straw Castle', which can accommodate two people.

The powerful 'Legendary Straw Pegasus!' that supports its huge body on its two hind legs and leaps up on its front legs."

This is a teacup and pot. In a teacup, you become a 'teacup human', not a teacup poodle!

This is a UFO that crashed at the foot of Mt Kakuda and the aliens are SOS.Cute.

This is Gulliver stuck on the ground. It was big and the children playing around it looked like they were from the land of dwarfs.

In the woodland area, photos of past artworks were on display. So many different works had been created as the event had been running for a long time.

On this day, children were seen flying kites throughout the park.

What a surprise, there was a booth to experience making Western kites. Children were enthusiastically making their own kites.

I don't know if this event is a feature of Kamiyamagata Park, which has a lot of playground equipment, but I was surprised by the huge number of families with young children. For a moment I thought I was in a Toys 'R' Us. The power of small children is amazing. It was very funny.

The playground in the park is also very busy. A good park to spend holidays playing in nature.

The straw art works are still on display. Why not come and visit Kamiyan Lagoon Park for a holiday stroll? The description on the Straw Art Facebook page will make you want to support art students.

In Niigata, one of Japan's leading rice-producing regions, rice straw is discharged as a by-product of its rice production. In the past, rice straw was processed into traditional household utensils and utilised. Today, however, such uses have died out.

The Straw Art Festival was initiated in 2006 as a joint initiative between Nishikan-ku, Niigata City, and Musashino Art University in order to make use of the huge amount of rice straw produced every year.

Students, mainly art students, create artworks using rice straw and exhibit them as an event while interacting with local people, thereby presenting the use of rice straw in the modern age and encouraging local revitalisation and interaction between people.

(From the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/waraartmatsuri)

Spotlight.

Kamiyamagata Park

• 1, Matsunoo, Nishigamaku, Niigata 953-0015, Japan