Toyooka Theater Festival

The theatre festival started in 2020 in Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture, which is home to Kinosaki Onsen, a spa town known for its history. The previous year, the 0th Toyooka Theater Festival, was held in 2019. With the aim of regional promotion linked to tourism, one of Toyooka City's main industries, the festival is held mainly at the Ebara Riverside Theatre, which was opened after renovating the former Toyooka City Hall of Commerce and Industry, with the aim of attracting theatre fans from all over the country. In addition to the official programme, which invites outstanding theatre performances from Japan and abroad, the festival consists of related programmes such as fringe events in which young artists participate, symposia and other events. The mayor of Toyooka serves as chairman of the organising committee and Oriza Hirata of Seinendan is the festival director.
The first edition in 2020 was held with some of the programmes, including the international joint programme, replaced in order to prevent the spread of covid-19 infection. Hideto Iwai, Kawariyuku-Sen, Gotandadan, Q, Seinendan, cigars, Tokyo Death Rock, Kaito Nakahori + Oriza Hirata and Mum&Gypsy participated.
In 2021, the festival was scheduled to take place from 9 September, but was cancelled due to the spread of covid-19 infection.
In 2022, in addition to 18 official programmes, including a director's programme of 10 performances including works invited from abroad, a fringe programme was developed with the participation of 60 groups, attracting a total of over 18,000 people.