Forest Festival of the Arts Okayama: Celebrating northern Okayama Prefecture’s bountiful nature through art

Okayama’s most famous attractions, like Okayama Castle and the canals of Kurashiki, are in the southern part of the prefecture. Head north into the mountains, though, and you’ll be ensconced in beautiful mountain woodlands, where the Forest Festival of the Arts will take place from September 28 to November 24, 2024. Through its featured exhibits, this festival shines a light on forests and Japanese nature as a source of inspiration for community engagement. This cooperative nature of the festival aspires to create a “new form of capital” that enrichens the local area.

A wide genre of domestic and international creators that include artists, musicians, dancers, architects, designers, flower artists, chefs and more will showcase their work at the festival, which will be spread across a dozen venues in the towns of Tsuyama, Nagi, Niimi, Maniwa and Kagamino in the Chugoku Mountains of Western Japan. These installations will transform and further enhance the already stunning locales, including Tsuyama’s historic Joto district, Niimi’s Makido Cave and Kagamino’s Okutsu river valley, famous for its vivid autumn colors.