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Celebrating East and South East Asian Immigrants’ culture in today‘s Britain.
What is Ura Matsuri?
Ura Matsuri is a festival, showcasing both world-leading and emerging artists from the East and South East Asian diaspora. The performers are working in various disciplines and there is a particular focus on women artists. The festival is a celebration of rich and diverse cultural heritages and how the work has been shaped by living in the UK.
Ura Matsuri has been running since 2016, initially as an annual event but has since expanded, is curated by Ura Matsuri Collective (UMC), a group of Japanese female artists from the legendary pop band Frank Chickens.
Ura, means ‘other side’ in Japanese and Matsuri, means ‘local community festival’. This refers to our interest in providing a platform to under-represented artists in today’s multi-cultural UK.
Ura Matsuri has provided audiences with wide-ranging works, compered by Japanny-A-Granny (our resident funky hostess) in a Variety Show style. We have had pop music, experimental music, Chinese percussion, Japanese Shamisen, Benshi film, burlesque puppets, Butoh dance, Japanese Taiko & flute, children’s workshops and many more. Ura Matsuri has also become a meeting and networking place for participating artists. Our “Green Room for artists” space has generated several collaborative projects already.