top of page

URAMATSURI 2025 at Southbank Centre

​Saturday 19th July 2025 7pm

part of ESEA Encounters season

Ura Matsuri 2025

line up

​

Frank Chickens 

Tokyo Riddim band
Beibei Wang

Tomoko Komura 

Hylem Kim & Masumi Endo

Gamelan Lila Cita & Lila Bhawa dancers 

Fancy Chance

Chindon Yeah’s 
&

Vera Chok

​

BSL interpreter: Lian Duan

​

plus

hibiki ichikawa and akari mochizuki with shamisen london at Daylight ninjas

BSL interpreted performance

Now in their ninth year, Ura Matsuri is bringing a matsuri like no other to the Southbank Centre. Compered by award-winning Malaysian actor, performance maker and poet Vera Chok and Ura Matsuri resident hostess, Japanny-A-Granny, Ura Matsuri serves up a wide range of delights wide range of delights from pop music, dance, Benshi (live film storytelling), classical music on traditional instruments, Chindon Street performance and more. With performances from legendary punk pop group Frank Chickens, world-famous Chinese percussionist Beibei Wang, Japanese Benshi style performer Tomoko Komura, Korean flutist Hyelim Kim and many more, its sure to be ‘one hell of a showcase for East and South East Asian music, performance, fun and culture’ (To Do List).

​

From ‘Ura’, meaning ‘other side’ in Japanese and ‘Matsuri’, ‘local community festival’, Ura Matsuri has been running annually since 2016, curated by Ura Matsuri Collective (UMC), a group of Japanese female artists from the legendary pop band Frank Chickens.

​

As described by an audience member of the 2024 festival, ‘It’s a celebration of culture, and in an ever divided world such a clever way to bring people together’.

​

"..whimsical, unabashedly rebellious, no-holds-barred, grab-bag celebration of ESEA (East & South East Asian) culture and identity… dazzling, absurd, irreverent, or laugh-out-loud funny, but infused unfailingly throughout with joy..."  Maiko Kawabata, Daiwa news

Ura Matsuri 2025

Sat 19 Jul 2025, 7pm

FREE ENTRY

The Clore Ballroom, Level 2 in Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre

Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX

Southbank centre website here

Ura Matsuri Daylight Ninjas

 

Enjoy a live performance of traditional and original shamisen pieces, played on the traditional three-stringed Japanese instrument from an ensemble led by Hibiki Ichikawa, Europe’s only professional shamisen player and Shamisen London, accompanied by Akari Mochizuki, a singer of Enka, traditional Japanese ballads.

​

Through the afternoon, Toshiko Kurata, a Japanese origami artist, leads an origami workshop, teaching you how to fold the Ninja’s infamous ‘shuriken’ (spinning mini-spear), before Frank Chickens, the legendary punk pop performance group teach the crowd a simple dance routine for their indie hit ‘We Are Ninja’, incorporating your origami shuriken.

19 Jul 2025, 1pm, FREE ENTRY

The Riverside Terrace

The Riverside Terrace is an outdoor space overlooking the River Thames, on Royal Festival Hall, Level 2.

Southbank Centre website here

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © Ura Matsuri 2025

bottom of page