The intensity of Japan Festa could be heard (stage speakers about 20 decibels too loud) and seen (why is your head blue?) from afar. There was no chance of missing this event for anyone who came within 100 meters of it, because it was everywhere, and it was crazy.
In its ninth year and still going as strong as ever, the Japan Festa is, as the name hints, a festival for lovers of Japanese culture, otherwise known as otaku. Filling up the whole Central World Square on Saturday with cosplay, karaoke, food and obsessive fans, the Festa is the largest, geekiest Japanese event of the year.
The event’s highlight was Japanese girl band LoVendoR (pronounced: lavender). After much squeezing and pushing between sweaty, agitated fans, each with their own professional camera, I was able get a close-up inspection.
To my ears LoVendoR’s music was average at best, but more important was what they seemed to represent for a deprived fandom. For otaku in a city whose mainstream culture is mostly infatuated with K-pop, the Festa was two days of release. After all, the Japanese acts don’t tour through Thailand like they did in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
It was a chance for people to dress up, dance to replicas of their favorite groups, catch it all on camera and then return to their normal, boring lives to wait another year to discharge their nerdy fascinations.
If they weren’t dressed up as something weird, most people there sported a DSLR equipped with a 30-centimeter lens in their backpack. It felt like a graduation ceremony, only with more eccentric gowns and photographers. I spotted only a few non-otaku taking selfies with the cosplayers.
Creepiness intensifies as nerds swarm a cosplayer to snap pictures at Japan Festa on Saturday, Aug. 30.
Cosplay enthusiast Shawn O’Brien traveled from Pattaya for Japan Festa on Saturday, Aug. 30.
Not that all J-fans are going to mingle together. The concert stage marked a sort of boundary where the cosplay ended and another subculture, the J-pop fans, began.
Much of the stage was dedicated to the line of cover dance, a form of performance where groups of teenagers dance around on stage replicating their favorite music group. These performances were catered to the rest of the fandom mainly composed of individuals unsatiated of the real thing, who would gladly accept imitations re-enacted on stage than nothing at all.
Fans perform their ritual of love below the stage during a performance by a cover group.
LoVendoR perform on stage at Japan Festa on Saturday, Aug. 30.
