Event overview
Strange Seed Shizuoka is entering a new phase as it moves toward its 20th year.
Marking its 10th anniversary in 2025, the festival has worked to establish street theater as a distinct artistic genre. As the festival looks towards its 20th year, we will continue to explore and expand the possibilities of street theater.
The street is society itself. It is filled with many people, each with their own lives, and facing their own challenges. We step directly into that reality. We strive to discover forms of artistic expression that address these issues in ways only street art and street theater can achieve.
To achieve this, we must first remove the many barriers that stand between us―fostering conversations among those who have never met; and dissolving the boundaries that divide the city, society, and its people. We will bring these acts of expression to life across the streets of Shizuoka.
Artistic expression, by its very nature, is dangerous.
When the vague feeling of unease within an artist takes shape, sparks inevitably fly. We believe those sparks are at once beauty and fear, an ignition device that reaches deep into the viewer’s heart.
Now, take the leap. The sparks born from these vague stirrings are waiting for you.
STRANGE SEED SHIZUOKA
Festival Director
Worry KINOSHITA
Street Theatre Festival
STRANGE SEED SHIZUOKA 2026
- Dates
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2026 May 3 (Sun) – 5 (Tue)
- Venue
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Sumpu Castle Park, Aoba Symbol Road and other places in the city, Shizuoka, Japan
- Admission
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Free, no reservations required (with some exceptions)
*Time change or cancellation of performances may occur due to poor weather or other conditions.
- Programs
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Theatre
Core Program
- Peace & Quiet Yukio Suzuki x Stopgap Dance Company
- One Shot Collectif Protocole
Official Program
- HIBINO KODUE Project Dance Performance Are You ALICE? Nakajima Miko x Ino Nagomi x Ono Ryuichi
- Light trap for shadow Co.SCOoPP
- Matsu-Matsu-Tatematsuri-Matsuri 2026 (The Wait-Respectfully-Till-the-End Festival) Okuma Ryutaro
- NEW HERO: we shall overcome for the future SANPIN with SHIZUOKA’S NEW HEROES feat. Jinta-la-Mvta
- Bench ZEROKO
Open Call Program
- Post Gregor Nikubukashigi
- Ukifune UKIMO Project
- Let’s go to the Market! 20% Experimental Theatre
- LANDSCAPERS FumenKaiga
Workshop
Official Program
- The Flying Sumpu Castle! HIBINO Kodue
- Let’s Shout into the Open Air! Tomomi Ouchi (SPAC)
- Let’s Make Wind Chimes: The Sound of Wind in May Reiko Nireki
- Fun Lyric Writing Workshop: Your Drawing Becomes a Song! Kenjiro Maruyama
- Pantomime Playtime HICKee
- [Pre-event workshop] Inclusive Dance Workshop Stopgap Dance Company
Open Call Program
- The Victory Splash: We’re all winners just for being alive!!! Let’s celebrate with a beer shower! Theater Collective MOKUGEKI
- Contact
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STRANGE SEED SHIZUOKA Office info@strangeseed.info
Organized by the Committee of the Open-air Performing Arts Festival Shizuoka
About Us
Imagine a play with actors lying on the grass in a park performing before a backdrop of spring green.
A parade of dancers in a shopping street with audiences invited to join.
As the performance starts, the atmosphere changes completely.
Strange Seed Shizuoka, a street theatre festival materializing such visions, was launched in 2016. As its title, Street Theatre Festival, denotes, it’s not an ordinary theatre festival—it is a festival that creates numerous questions of “What’s this? What’s that? What’s here?” in the city.
Every year during the Golden Week (a public holiday period in Japan, running from late April to early May), we host the street theater festival Strange Seed Shizuoka in the city center of Shizuoka City.
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
