Festival Calendar in Kyoto
A visual guide from the Kyoto travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
On the evenings before the Gion Matsuri parade, the streets north of Shijo close to traffic and the tall hoko floats stand lit in the middle of the road, their musicians playing the same repeating chime for hours. It is the loudest week of Kyoto's year, and it is only one entry on a calendar that runs from the May horseback processions to the mountain bonfires of mid-August and the costume parade in late October. Knowing which month brings what decides both the hotel bill and the queue lengths.
The big four
Aoi Matsuri, usually 15 May, sends an ox cart and several hundred people in Heian court dress from the Imperial Palace grounds north to Shimogamo and Kamigamo. Gion Matsuri fills all of July, peaking with the yoiyama street evenings around 14 to 16 July and the Yamahoko float parade on the 17th, with a smaller second parade on the 24th. Daimonji Gozan Okuribi lights five giant figures on the surrounding hills on 16 August — three written characters, a boat and a torii — of which the first and largest is best seen from the Kamo River banks. Jidai Matsuri, usually 22 October, walks twelve centuries of costume from the palace to Heian Shrine.
Planning around it
Rates in central Kyoto typically double for the Gion parade nights and the August bonfires, and the better rooms go six months ahead; booking early or sleeping in Osaka and commuting thirty minutes on the Special Rapid are the two realistic options. Cherry blossom, roughly late March to early April, and the November foliage weeks are busier still without any festival attached. Quieter alternatives worth timing a trip around include the Kurama fire festival on the Eizan line in late October, and the geiko spring dance seasons in Gion and Kamishichiken through April.