NEWS
ICU finishes second in University Festival Grand Prix 2017
Update: January 29, 2018
The award ceremony of the University Festival Grand Prix 2017 held to decide the best autumn university festival in the Tokyo metropolitan region took place at Tokyo International Forum on Wednesday, December 20, 2017. The ICU Festival won second place overall as well as prizes in three categories―the student independent planning prize, the regional revitalization planning prize and the international exchange planning prize.
The University Festival Grand Prix is jointly organized by Tokyo Metro and Gurunavi Inc. University festivals from 110 campuses competed in the 9th annual contest in 2017, the largest number on record. This was the first time that the ICU Festival had received an award at the grand prix.
The ICU Festival 2017 also won the global award at the Best of University Festivals held by a university festival research group consisting of professors, graduate students and undergraduate students of Aoyama Gakuin University.
The reasons ICU won second place overall at the University Festival Grand Prix 2017
ICU joined hands with stores near the university and those in the shopping area around the nearest train station, setting up a project, "ICU students' favorite shopping alley," as one of our collaborative interaction with the community. The number of participating stores reached 16, by far the largest among the competing festivals. People from local shops worked behind the sales counters together with ICU students, wearing the official "happi" coats of the ICU Festival Committee, making it clear that the project was a joint undertaking. These store owners set up stalls on the campus not only to sell their own goods but also to promote limited products like the "Mitaka Berry" fruit drink they developed in collaboration with the ICU Festival Committee. "The depth of relations" between the university and the community was highly acclaimed at the contest.
University Festival Grand Prix official website (Japanese version only):https://www.enjoytokyo.jp/feature/gakusai/2017/grand_prix/final_judge.html
Comments by ICU Festival Committee members
Comment by Kentaro Yamada (3rd year student ), Chairman, ICU Festival Committee
This year, we tried to figure out how we could make the festival more interesting and spent a year taking on various new challenges. Fresh projects we started this year are too many to count, but let me give three examples that I think highlighted the uniqueness of the ICU Festival.
1. ICU Chapel Concert
We held a new event, "ICU Chapel Concert," in the magnificent University Chapel that ICU takes great pride in. Many people came along to enjoy student groups' hand-bell performances and choruses in spite of bad weather conditions caused by approaching typhoon.
2. Outdoor projects for children
We drastically increased the number of outdoor projects for children, hoping that they would play to their hearts' content in the spacious lawn area of the university. There was a giant maze covering a space of 9 meters by 15 meters. We read to children from a huge cloth picture book as large as 8 meters in width when opened. Children also played games people used to play back in the olden days with community volunteers. We also organized the ICU version of the "one-day play park" held on weekends in a park in Mitaka City. We prepared great many projects for children.
3. ICU students' favorite shopping alley
We invited owners of the stores in the community, who are taking care of us every day, to join the project "ICU students' favorite shopping alley." We put together 14 stalls using about 50 bamboos from the bamboo forest on campus. On the day of the festival, members of the festival committee and the people from the local stores put on the blue "happi" coats, the ICU festival trade mark, and worked side by side. We were able to mingle with people from the local community and get to know them better.
Not everything went according to plan, though. An unwelcome guest, a typhoon, hit the area this year. It slashed the number of visitors as well as the amount of sales. We had to get the festival going and put things away afterwards all in pouring rain. We faced a good number of troubles, but there is no doubt that more people than in the past gave us support this year. We were able to win the second place overall in the University Festival Grand Prix because many people pitched in. We would like to thank members of various clubs and circles, the group of voluntarily-participating stores , community volunteers, people from local shops, many sponsoring companies, international students and university office staff members. We really appreciate all their support over the past year.
Comment by Mido Tanaka (3rd year student), in charge of ICU Chapel Concert
Comment by Nao Osako (1st year student) in charge of children's outdoor projects
Comment by Ai Yoshida (1st year student) in charge of community exchange
Comment by Minori Teramoto (1st year student) in charge of bamboo stalls
(Related articles)
For articles concerning the activities of the ICU Festival Committee, please visit the following site.
ーICU Festival Committee collaborated with a group supporting local farmers to develop an original beverage named "Mitaka Berry" ―On sale at local cafés and events(9/6/2017)
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ーICU Students Join Osawa Hachiman Shrine's Annual Festival as Portable Shrine Carriers -- Portable Shrine to Be Displayed at ICU Festival〜(10/17/2017)https://www.icu.ac.jp/en/news/171017.html