Abiko International Festival canceled in 2020 was held with COVID-19 countermeasures this year. (No.21-14)
Date: November 28th (Sunday), 2021
Time: Gallery 10:00～16:00, Hall: 14:00～16:00
Venue: Abiko Civic Plaza, Gallery & Multi-purpose Hall
Last year due to the spread of COVID-19 and the subsequent declaration of a state of emergency by the government, people’s activities and usage of facilities were greatly restricted. Accordingly, almost all events and gatherings were suspended, and all the scheduled events of AIRA were also cancelled.
Though we are still in the midst of COVID-19 this year, the vaccination rate has substantially increased and AIRA decided to hold the festival taking appropriate measures against the infectious disease. However, it was required to hold the festival without gathering people and to promote the exchange between citizens and foreigners, which seemed to be contradictory.
The gallery was opened at 10 am. There were booths of language classes (Korean, German, French and Japanese), Taiwanese tea, “Menso-doll” (Chinese traditional doll made of sticky rice, flour, etc.), “Nikuman” (Chinese steamed meat bun). At each booth they introduced their activities using posters, paintings, videos, etc. At the Japanese class booth volunteer teachers showed teaching materials which they use in the class.
In the hall there was a ceremony celebrating the 30th anniversary of AIRA’s establishment, and after that video presentations started on the stage at 2 pm.
Following the opening announcement by Ms.Gulrukhsor Safarova from Tajikistan, Mr.Murakoshi, Chairman of Festival Executive Committee and Ms.Sato of Chuo Gakuin University emceed the show.
Various cooking and culture of foreign countries were introduced in the videos. The Japanese language class showed its activities in its video. The German class students made an introduction of Germany and their class, and the Korean class students introduced Korea. A student of Chuo Gakuin University made a presentation on a comparison of Japanese and Chinese culture which she had learned through interviews with AIRA Chinese teachers.
The presentations were broadcast live on Zoom, which was watched by 20 people. All the programs finished at 4:20 exceeding the scheduled time and the festival was closed.
・You can see some of the videos on YouTube later if you missed them on that day.
< Inside story of the festival>
Every year Festival Executive Committee is started up in June. However, this year’s first committee was held on July 16th since it was necessary to watch carefully how COVID-19 vaccination would be promoted. At some time, Corona infected people increased rapidly, which made us concerned about holding the festival. In August, it was finally determined to hold the festival with preventive measures against the infection and the preparatory works began.
Under the basic policy to avoid the Three Cs, using videos for presentation was decided and the executive committee and AIRA members started to work. Normally, an executive committee consists of the representatives of each activity group. This time, the preparatory work started only three months before the festival under such difficult circumstances that there wasn’t enough manpower. Besides, they had neither experience nor knowledge for shooting and editing videos.
Fortunately, several students of Chiba University and Chuo Gakuin University joined in the work as part of the curriculum of volunteering. Thanks to the young people’s knowledge and quick action and also to the efforts of the volunteers and language class students, the video making was rapidly progressed after much trial and error and was finally completed in time.
Abiko International Festival 2021 can be said to be the achievement of the combination of AIRA’s potential manpower, teamwork and young people’s power.
(Translated by Katsumi Nakajima)
