Kyoto YOKAI Festival 2026: Dates, Tickets & Parade

The Kyoto YOKAI Festival 2026 is now underway. From September 12 to November 29, 2026, yōkai take over Uzumasa Kyoto Village in Kyoto with parades, dance shows, character encounters and a movie-set world built around the Hyakki Yagyō. If you are searching for Halloween in Kyoto 2026 or a Japanese Halloween experience, this is not a conventional haunted house but a modern mix of folklore, horror performance and theme-park entertainment.

Updated September 18, 2026. Times, prices and participation rules have been checked against the organizer’s information after the festival opened.

Kyoto YOKAI Festival 2026 at a Glance

Dates: September 12 to November 29, 2026
Location: Uzumasa Kyoto Village, Ukyo, Kyoto
Opening hours: generally 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; some areas close earlier
KAIKAI YOKAI PARADE: 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and Japanese public holidays
Uzumasa Hyakki Yakō: 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays
Yokai ☆ Dance Live!: 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays
Night ticket from 5:00 p.m.: ¥2,000 for adults and ¥1,300 for children aged 3 through elementary-school age

Parades & Program: What Happens at Kyoto YOKAI Festival?

Two versions of the yōkai parade form the heart of the festival. They run on Saturdays, Sundays and Japanese public holidays.

At 5:30 p.m., the KAIKAI YOKAI PARADE – The Feast of a Hundred Demons begins. This version focuses on interaction: guests can meet the yōkai, take photos and even join the parade after registering in advance. The second half becomes a live show with music, dance and sword fighting, followed by a yōkai greeting session.

At 7:30 p.m., the nighttime Uzumasa Hyakki Yakō follows. Visitors may watch the procession but cannot join it. The parade again leads into the stage show with music, dance and sword fighting, and the audience can dance with the yōkai during the finale. Choreography is by TERUPOP, with music by Takahiro Obata.

Want to join the parade? Registration is now open

The previously announced registration for the 5:30 p.m. parade is now available. There is no on-site registration. Costumes are screened in advance, and participants must wear the costume submitted with their application. Parade participation itself is free, but a regular Uzumasa Kyoto Village admission ticket is still required.

October dates: apply by September 25, 2026 at noon
November dates: apply by October 23, 2026 at noon
Event-day check-in: 5:10 to 5:20 p.m. on the first floor of Padios
Changing area: a simple changing room is available at Shinobu Yagura, generally from 10:00 a.m. to 8:45 p.m.

Participant numbers are limited. Current application forms and costume requirements are available on the official festival page.

Tickets, Closed Dates and Important Notes

Regular admission from 10:00 a.m. costs ¥2,800 for adults aged 13 and over. The night ticket from 5:00 p.m. costs ¥2,000. Children aged 3 through elementary-school age pay ¥1,600 for a day ticket or ¥1,300 at night. Children aged 2 and under enter free. Some attractions inside the park cost extra.

Tickets including the bilingual yōkai pamphlet and one of three randomly selected postcards cost ¥3,800 for adults during the day or ¥3,000 at night. A full-event pass with unlimited park admission during the festival period costs ¥5,500 for adults.

The park generally lists opening hours of 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.. During the festival it is closed on September 15 and 29 and October 6, 13, 20 and 27, 2026. The Satsueisho Entrance cannot be used for park admission after 5:00 p.m. Weather or other circumstances may change or cancel parade routes, locations or individual program elements.

Yōkai Greetings and Dance Live: Current Times

Kaikai YOKAI Greetings take place daily during the festival. On weekdays they are scheduled for 4:30, 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 p.m.. On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, they run at 11:45 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.. Which yōkai appear is intentionally kept as a surprise.

The participatory Yokai ☆ Dance Live! runs on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays at 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. at Otemon Square. The choreography uses simple clapping and arm movements so children and adults can join in easily.

Yōkai Food, Merchandise and the Art Exhibition

The old “Coming soon” status for food and merchandise is now outdated. The festival has a full yōkai-themed food lineup, including colorful yōkai drinks, Yagyō Dōji braised pork buns, matcha churros, eyeball drinks, monster soft serve and other dishes sold around the park.

Merchandise is also on sale, including the bilingual festival pamphlet, a will-o’-the-wisp penlight, yōkai transformation cards, hooded towels, clear files, badges and other collectibles. The separate Yokai Art Exhibition, however, is still marked “Coming soon” on the official festival site.

Yōkai Tours in Kyoto – Including an English Tour

Visitors who want to combine the festival with yōkai-related sites around Kyoto can book guided tours. The Kyoto Yokai Tour by bus visits places including Rokudō Chinnō-ji, Seimei Shrine and Ichijō Modoribashi before ending at Uzumasa Kyoto Village. Scheduled dates are September 19, October 10, 17, 24 and 31, and November 7.

Most useful for international visitors is the English-language bus tour on October 24, 2026 for ¥12,500. Park admission, the festival pamphlet, a limited postcard and a ¥2,000 voucher are included. Selected Randen walking tours are also available in Japanese.

The organizer describes the event as Japanese Halloween, but that phrase should not be taken too literally. This is neither a historic Edo-period festival nor a Japanese version of an ancient Halloween custom. It is a contemporary event held on an Edo-style street set built for film productions, combining yōkai traditions with modern entertainment.

What Are Yōkai and the Hyakki Yagyō?

The word yōkai covers a wide range of supernatural beings in Japanese culture. They include threatening monsters, animal creatures, shapeshifters, ghostly apparitions and sometimes strangely comic figures. The word “demons” is therefore only a rough translation and does not describe every character accurately.

The festival draws on the Hyakki Yagyō, often translated as the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons or, more precisely, a parade of one hundred supernatural beings. In stories and illustrated scrolls, countless yōkai travel through Kyoto together at night. The idea predates the Edo period and is already associated with Kyoto during the Heian period.

The Kyoto YOKAI Festival turns that tradition into an original movie story. A film reel from the fictional yōkai period drama Uzumasa Hyakki Yakō is discovered in a studio warehouse after being sealed away for decades. During a screening, the creatures burst out of the film and take over the movie village.

Why the Festival Is Interesting for Scare Actors

For scare actors and creature performers, the festival offers an alternative to the classic jump scare. The yōkai do not need to behave aggressively all the time. Some are eerie while others are curious, playful, proud or even cute. Each one needs a readable personality expressed through mask, costume texture, gait and rhythm.

The shifts between three performance modes are especially useful to study:

During a greeting, direct interaction comes first. Performers need to respond flexibly to photos, conversations and different guest reactions.
In the parade, large silhouettes, repeatable movement patterns and readable performance matter because the audience may be several meters away.
In the dance finale, character movement and choreography come together. Each yōkai should retain its own physical logic even while following the same steps.

Those ideas connect directly to the BESO Academia. See Scare Acting Basics: How a Good Scare Works and our larger Zombie Workshop for Makeup, Costumes and Scare Acting. Kyoto’s yōkai show is a strong example of how a horror character can hold attention through posture, rhythm, curiosity, humor and controlled proximity, not only through scares.

Who Is Kyoto YOKAI Festival Best For?

The festival is especially well suited to horror fans, yōkai and Japan enthusiasts, cosplayers, and visitors who enjoy elaborate creatures, character performance and unusual Halloween experiences. Scare actors can also learn a lot from the mix of greetings, parade performance and choreography.

It may be less suitable if you mainly want classic horror mazes, intense jump scares or a Western-style haunted-house experience. Kyoto focuses more on atmosphere, folklore, movie sets, dance and character encounters. That difference is exactly what makes the event distinctive.

2026 is the third year of the Kyoto YOKAI Festival. The first edition took place in 2024, followed by a more internationally focused yōkai program in 2025. This year’s event is also the first major autumn event since the renewal of Uzumasa Kyoto Village.

Sources and Current Information

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