Festival
Our Foyle Obon festival creates a shared space for people of all ages and backgrounds to come together and experience something very special. On an evening in early summer each year, we turn the Playtrail into our own ‘Little Tokyo’ and bring together people of all ages and stages, from all areas and walks of life, to celebrate family and friendship with music and dance, food and crafts, and a beautiful lantern ceremony as the daylight fades.
2022: Foyle Obon Festival is back!
On May 28th 2022, Team Obon were delighted to be back doing what they do best…bringing the best wee Obon festival in Ireland back!
The photos tell the story of just how happy and delighted all our taiko players, our dancers, our Japanese community, our lights and stage crew, our musicians, our friends and family all were to be back together drumming, dancing and singing into the night.
2021: community moments festival
2021 required all our creativity and imagination to bring our community together through festival as we were still under many restrictions due to the pandemic. But we were not to be deterred! We designed a programme of vibrant, uplifting and flexible ‘Community...
2020: Lantern Festival
Sadly, due to Covid 19 we had to cancel our 2020 Obon Festival. But that did not mean that we gave up on our dream of bringing our community together! We put our heads together and created instead a beautiful festival of lanterns. At the end of Obon traditionally...
2019: Foyle Obon festival
Once again, we were delighted to celebrate O-Bon 2019 at the Playtrail on Saturday 25th May. For our celebrations on that evening, we transformed the grounds into ‘Little Tokyo’ with lanterns, bunting, dragons and lots and lots of colour! There was so much to see and...
2014: Toro Nagashi Floating Lantern
In June 2014 our O-BON Festival Group organised and ran our first event, a Tōrō Nagashi lantern ceremony on the river Foyle. It was a huge undertaking by a tiny group of probably slightly crazy people! A lot was learned, about the unpredictability of our river and...
2015: Foyle Obon Festival
On the evening of Saturday the 6th of June 2015, Derry-Londonderry became the first city in the UK and Ireland to host its very own Obon Festival. The festival took place at The Playtrail, Racecourse Road. There was fun for all the family from 7pm to 10.00 pm. There...
2017: Foyle Obon Festival
On the 10th of June, 2017, the sun shone and the crowds gathered as the O-Bon celebrations began. A brilliant buzz could be felt at the Playtrail as events began to kick off around ‘Little Tokyo’. We started off with Fujima Sensei and her team of wonderful dancers...
2018: Foyle Obon Festival
Foyle Obon 2018 We were delighted to celebrate O-Bon 2018 at the Playtrail on Saturday June 9th, which we transformed into ‘Little Tokyo’! Some of the brilliant activities on offer were – Japanese games, Manga Art, origami, martial arts, calligraphy and or course...