OCHA NORMA, a Hello! Project group, has announced it is withdrawing from the music festival “SPARK 2026 in YAMANAKAKO,” which was set to take place on September 21 at Lake Yamanaka in Yamanashi Prefecture. The withdrawal appears to be due to an approaching typhoon, and the thread lit up after users compiled a list showing that other Hello! Project groups — including Morning Musume。’26 and ANGERME — were also forced into Osaka show cancellations and schedule changes around the same time. On 5ch, comments crossed several lines: criticism of how slow the festival staff were to respond (the announcement didn’t come until after midnight, spilling into the next calendar day), questions about the festival’s policy of pressing ahead with the event despite the approaching typhoon, and praise for the ticket refund handling when compared with other festivals.
OCHA NORMA@ocha_norma
[Notice of Withdrawal from Performance]
Regarding the event scheduled for September 21 (Mon, holiday)…
■BEYOOOOONDS
(no event)→(no event)→(no event)→(no event)
■OCHA NORMA
Hokkaido→(withdrew)→Miyagi→(no event)
■Rosy Chronicle
●Chiba→Tokyo→●Yamanashi→Saitama
17AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:03
Re: #15
Juice=Juice's appearance at the "Ebaringo" Game Show got canceled too
18AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:04
Where's Ocha (OCHA NORMA) right now? Still in Sapporo?
19AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:04
If performers are pulling out because of the weather, doesn't the event itself get canceled?
23AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:05
I saw somewhere else that said they'd withdrawn too
27AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:09
Fans planning to go tomorrow are probably already asleep
28AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:09
Picture them bleary-eyed at a highway rest stop, spotting the wolf and despairing lol
29AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:10
At least I hope they see the notice when they wake up in the morning
30AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:10
There's a chance even the members themselves are sound asleep
32AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:10
They announced at 7 PM that the show would go on despite the typhoon, and one by one the idol groups on the bill started announcing they were pulling out
37AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:12
Feels like there'll be fans who show up on-site without ever hearing it was canceled, left totally clueless
38AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:12
So they're holding the event but refunds are also an option, right?
39AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:13
Yeah, and it's Sendai the next day, so travel is brutal either way
40AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:13
They must be worn out from Hokkaido, no need to push it
41AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:13
Actually, don't flights out of Hokkaido probably aren't even flying?
42AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:13
If you get in without knowing, do you not get a refund?
44AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:14
Wait, are they doing it at Lake Yamanaka again?
Didn't the venue move somewhere else in the Kanto area at some point?
Never been either way, though
45AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:15
The members are probably already back in Tokyo by the 20th
Hokkaido, Yamanashi, Sendai — all same-day round trips
46AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:16
Just the fact that they're doing refunds makes them seem pretty legit
especially compared to this year's Summer Sonic
47AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:17
Turns out there's also a group called "Kimi to Miru Sora" (The Sky I See With You) — similar name to "The Blue Sky I Wanted to See"
48AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:17
About 60 of the roughly 150 acts have canceled — pretty much the only big-agency acts left are Amuse, Platinum, and Yumeha
49AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:18
If they end up paying a cancellation penalty for withdrawing, that's a win by attrition for the organizers
50AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:19
People rip on it constantly, but Rock in Japan is honestly the most solidly run festival in the country
51AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:20
They were mid-flight from Sapporo back to Tokyo, so it's understandable they couldn't respond right away
53AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:20
Fans already fast asleep on the overnight bus…
56AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:23
Re: #53
Small mercy that the members are probably in the same boat
64AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:27
Slow to make the call
classic Up-Front (their agency)
even with this many withdrawals, they're still going ahead with the event
is there not a single group with decent management?
68AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:28
Re: #64
There's also a theory that SPARK was slow to approve the withdrawal
just because they requested to pull out doesn't mean they can announce it right away
73AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:32
I don't get why they packed the schedule this tight in the first place
just consolidate the Hello! Project dates
76AnonymousSep 21, 2026 01:35
Re: #73
just look a bit further up the thread
Background and Key Points of This Story
“SPARK 2026 in YAMANAKAKO” was an event that chose to go ahead despite an approaching typhoon, after which several of the idol groups scheduled to appear announced their withdrawals one after another. The figure cited in the thread — “about 60 of roughly 150 acts canceled” — comes from one anonymous poster’s impression and is not an officially confirmed tally, so it should be treated with caution. The discussion split mainly into two threads: one questioning whether it was right for organizers to leave the cancel-or-continue call to individual performers instead of calling off the event themselves given the bad weather, and another praising the festival’s refund handling by comparison with other festivals. OCHA NORMA had a Hokkaido show the day before, and the resulting travel burden is speculated as part of the reason behind the withdrawal — but no official explanation was given even within the thread, so this remains speculation based only on the publicly stated reason of the approaching typhoon.
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