From our other sites
The story
A large-scale food festival called “Local Food Fight in Tottori,” held in Kurayoshi City, Tottori Prefecture, is causing a stir after falling far short of the organizers’ pre-event goal of drawing 50,000 visitors — with tents and stages reportedly left unfinished on the day. On 5ch’s Newsflash+ board, posters raised doubts about whether Kurayoshi could ever hold a crowd that size, contrasting it with the Utsunomiya Gyoza Festival, which drew 150,000 people around the same time. Commenters also pointed out that the organizing company had been established less than a year earlier and was based in Shibuya, Tokyo — with no connection to Tottori — fueling further doubts about the event’s legitimacy.
This weekend, a large food festival held in Kurayoshi City has been causing controversy. Organizers promised to draw “50,000 visitors” and gathered vendors from across the country, but the actual venue reportedly wasn’t even ready, with tents and stages left unprepared. So what exactly happened on the ground?
Reporter: Moeka Wada
“A controversy has broken out over the food festival held at this venue yesterday and the day before. Just what happened here?”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
ttps://i.imgur.com/UYgQT7u.jpeg
That's literally the Lake Biwa fireworks lol
That AI image is creepy.
For a food event, making the food look unappetizing is a fatal flaw.
Meat? Come on, at least put up a picture of seafood, like crab or something.
guess even scammers have leveled up their game.
If they cancel it like the joint fireworks festival of the three cities did, that's basically fraud at that point.
Yokohama drew 50,000.
Rural areas have less entertainment, so people turn out more.
For Tottori, even 200,000 wouldn't be far-fetched.
Tottori City's population isn't even 200,000, you know.
Love that wild logic lol
That's the place with the Pear Museum (Tottori's famous for its pears).
For a 300 yen admission fee, getting to taste-compare three pear varieties is great.
The exhibits are educational too.
Big eaters are a different story — whole families stuffing themselves like pigs.
And it's based in Shibuya, which has nothing to do with Tottori.
Speaking of Shibuya, that's where GMO's headquarters is — the one that's in the news lately.
https://x.com/web_camera/status/2118905997007925677/video/1
Apparently it pulled in 150,000 people over two days.
I'm from Tochigi and eat Utsunomiya gyoza all the time, so I knew it'd be a mob scene and didn't even go near Utsunomiya Castle Ruins Park.
Part of it is that advertising costs have dropped thanks to the internet, I'd guess.
Just head east along the coastline from Izumo Taisha shrine and you'll get there — most of it's sandy beach, so it's easy walking.
No parking, nowhere to stay either.
Before that even — is there even a venue in that city that could hold a crowd that size?
Latest population figures
Tottori Prefecture: 516,273
Tottori City: 177,154
Yonago City: 141,835
Kurayoshi City: 42,497
They can't capitalize on their advantages — some of the calmest beaches on the Sea of Japan coast, rock oysters, nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch), hot springs.
They really should have the potential to draw tourists from the Kansai region.
That kind of thing is the same everywhere along the Sea of Japan coast.
It's not a reason to specifically travel all the way to the San'in region.
I'd bet more people can place it than Yamagata, Fukushima, or Gifu.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Regional events that tout a goal of drawing “X tens of thousands of visitors” often set ambitious attendance targets to secure booth-fee revenue from municipalities and local vendors, and when the actual turnout falls far short, accusations of being “fraudulent” tend to follow. Kurayoshi City has a population of roughly 42,000, and posters on the thread repeatedly pointed out that the event’s target of 50,000 attendees already exceeded the city’s own population. At the same time, there are successful examples from the same period — like the Utsunomiya Gyoza Festival, which drew around 150,000 people — suggesting this isn’t simply a case of “rural areas can’t draw a crowd,” but rather that poor planning around venue capacity and transportation infrastructure was likely at the heart of the problem. It should be noted that neither the news report nor the thread offers confirmed details about the actual state of the organizing company, so claims on that front remain speculative.
*This article is composed of excerpts and a summary from the 5ch (Newsflash+) thread “Expected to Draw 50,000… Only 500 Showed Up?! Tottori’s “Local Food Fight” Festival Sparks Controversy.”
Leave a Reply