The Nagaoka Festival is held annually from 1-3 August.

Nagaoka Fireworks on the 2nd and 3rd are famous throughout the country♪

This time, we will report on the Great People's Dance Float on the eve of the festival, which took place on the 1st.

On the eve of the Nagaoka Festival, the stage is set in front of Nagaoka Station, where various events are held, including a Harley parade, fire brigade and other parades, musical performances and portable shrines.

The main event of the festival is the Great People's Dance Float.

Every year, businesses in Nagaoka gather to dance through the streets in front of Nagaoka Station.

This year, 56 organisations and approximately 5,300 people took part. I participated as a member of the company I work for.

Lots of people in front of Nagaoka Station on this day from around midday!

There were stalls and lots of people.

I also got fruit ice cream at Fujiyama Fruit in front of Nagaoka Station☆.

☆ Fruit ice cream (left) pineapple (right) peach ☆

This is 100% fruit ice cream made by freezing fruit directly.

It's cold, tasty and great for hot summers... There were also apples and bananas in addition to this.

And now the sun is setting, it's time for the folk song stream to go live!

Everyone start preparing!

Everyone dances in yukata with the name of their respective companies.

Before the start of the minyo nagashi, a video message from Saburo Kitajima, the composer of "Nagaoka Daihana Ondo", was played.

The photo does not show well, but it was projected on a monitor in front of the station.

Here is the 'Great Fireworks Ondo'.

https://youtu.be/tU3wkJ3CFaM

This video is actually a video of the [Nagaoka Matsuri eve Festival Grand Folk Dance Float "Folk Dance Lecture"] made by Nagaoka City and uploaded on youtube.

If you are interested, please check out how to dance.　→ http://www.city.nagaoka.niigata.jp/kankou/minyo_koza.html

And then it was time to go live!

No photos could be taken because of the dancing. Sorry.

Another familiar Nagaoka jinku from youtube!

It was hot and very tiring during the show,

We were able to dance for about one and a half hours without incident.

I felt united with many Nagaoka citizens.

After the minyo nagashi, many portable shrines were paraded in front of the station.