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

Award ceremony of the University Festival Grand Prix 2017

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.

(From left to right) Chapel Concert, outdoor projects for children, ICU students' favorite shopping alley

Comment by Mido Tanaka (3rd year student), in charge of ICU Chapel Concert

A scene from Chapel Concert (ICU Glee Club)

When planning the ICU Chapel Concert, we had three things in mind for people coming to the festival. Firstly, we wanted to let them know ICU's fine chapel; secondly, we wanted them to feel the solemn atmosphere of the chapel that is an integral part of the university; and thirdly, we wanted them to find a place of healing and solace at the concert as well as to enjoy the festival.

This project was a new challenge to me as well as to the committee members because we started it from scratch this academic year. Especially, it took so much work to negotiate with participating student groups , different parts within the committee, and ICU Religious Center which manages the chapel, in order to realize the concert. We worked out all the details and tried to explain them to the people involved so they could easily understand. We also tried to be flexible to meet their requests as much as possible. I am happy we had more people than we had expected coming to the festival. For the participating student groups , there aren't many opportunities to perform at the chapel; they told me that it was such a satisfying experience.

I feel glad that we were able to hold the concert in an atmosphere that really made it worthy of the name "chapel concert" despite many hurdles we had to overcome. Visitors said in the questionnaire that they were looking forward to another concert next year. So I hope we will continue with it in the future. We are hoping to get our PR campaign started earlier and come up with a better program so the chapel concert will become one of the features of the festival.

Comment by Nao Osako (1st year student) in charge of children's outdoor projects

Old-time children's games

I joined the ICU Festival Committee with the sole hope that children would have fun at the festival, and I worked toward this goal for about half a year. While preparing to get the projects off the ground with the help of many people from the community, I just couldn't wait to see the festival take final shape so I would be able to look at the smiling faces of small children.

On the day of the festival, some of the projects were suspended because of the rain. But I was really happy to see children, looking all serious, try their hands at indigo dyeing at the one-day play park. I still remember their proud faces when they finally reached the goal in the maze. Our projects were primarily targeted to children, but it was also a delightful surprise that many parents and students were enjoying too.

The time I spent working together with my friends, thinking only how we could get visitors to enjoy the ICU Festival, was really precious to me. I don't think you can experience that kind of feeling elsewhere. In the future, I hope to make the festival enjoyable for people in a wider range of ages while also treasuring my relations with many others who are working to make children happy.

Comment by Ai Yoshida (1st year student) in charge of community exchange

Logo for the "ICU students' favorite shopping alley" area

My parents moved many times because of their jobs so I had a strong yearning for an environment where we can become good friends with local people. I spent the half year of preparation thinking how great it would be if the festival could become a place for people to "bond" with others. I tried to give it my best shot.

Because the project was new, it was more difficult than I had first imagined to create things one by one, making mistakes at times, learning from them and pushing on. On the day of the festival, though, I was happy to see the half year of our mingling, negotiating and cooperating with various people culminated in a tangible form of a "regional exchange." The whole thing was like a dream. I was happy to hear students and visitors say, "I am glad the stores I usually go to are here." And we were able to receive warm words from the local shop owners who joined the "shopping alley." They said, "It was a good project. We were able to work together with students." I was never happier in my life to see the smiles our project produced. I became convinced that this exchange is an absolutely good thing.

I think we were able to lay the foundation this time for the relationship between the festival and local people. I have no doubt that this wonderful relation will continue, and the festival will involve more people, get more exciting and lead to friendships and smiles among more people.

Comment by Minori Teramoto (1st year student) in charge of bamboo stalls

Building bamboo stalls

I was in charge of decoration and production to make the whole festival exciting. One of the projects was these bamboo stalls. Our idea was to build unique stalls representing ICU, using bamboos on our campus, and to create a mood of a festival where people can forget daily life. People from local shops sold their goods at these stalls in the "ICU students' favorite shopping alley," and it turned out to be something special, which you can't see anywhere else.

Around the summer break, we started working on the bamboos and putting them together, which was hard work. We had many troubles designing the stalls, but we were able to complete them by the day of the festival with the help of many people. The typhoon was approaching, and it wasn't easy for the local people to sell their goods in the "ICU student royal shopping alley" in bad weather. But when it was over, they said, "That was awesome." And that made me really happy.

We are not sure yet what sort of festival we are going to stage next year, but we hope to come up with something many people can enjoy.

(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）
/en/news/170905_2.html

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