The Mahora Academy School Festival or Mahora Academy Cultural Festival is an annual event held by the Mahora Academy, from Nursery schools to Universities, the students of the academy's various educational institutions would work to create various stalls and events to display their artistic achievements and abilities.
Based on the Japanese school festivals which are held to display students' learning, the festival is a world famous event developed to show the meaning of fun with the intention to develop international relationships, however, lately it has been treated more as a business, with companies joining in with the academy's clubs; investing in various festival events as sponsors and making millions in revenue.
Many people visit the festival as a recreational diversion, food is served, and often classrooms or gymnasiums are transformed into temporary restaurants or cafés. Events such as dances, concerts, parades, tournaments and plays are also performed by individual volunteers or by various school clubs. It is predicted that around 40 million people will visit Mahora Academy over the three days that the festival lasts for and, although officially it only lasts for three days, the festival is so big that it sometimes will last longer.
Although groups are known to start planning for the festival months in advance, preparation officially begins fifteen days before opening day after Junior-High and High school exams are completed. The Festival Gate is erected at this time to display the daily countdown for the festival.
Following a Preview Night Gala, day one officially starts at 10am. After the last of the day one events finish, the areas around the World Tree begin the Midnight Festival, which continues on through the night. Day two starts at 8am, which continues on through the day and ends with a second Midnight Festival that leads into the final day three.
Groups[]
- Mahora Festival Production Committee (Offers Dirigible rides across the academy)
- Mahora Academy University Division Construction Club (built the Festival Gate and repairs to the martial arts tournament)
- Mahora Robot Research Association and Mahora Technology Club (Demonstration "P2 vs Giant Tea-Service Automaton")
- Mahora "Mizugi" Shigeru Research Club (manga club revolving around horror mangaka Shigeru Mizuki)
- Mahora Scientific Research Club
- Mahora Flugtag Club: Flugtag competition
- Mahora Air Club
- Mahora Acrobatics Club: Nightmare Circus (every evening at 6:30pm)
- Mahora Professional Wrestling Club: Day 2, 2:30pm
- Mahora Kendama Fanclub
- Mahora Stuffies and Plushies Club: (club revolving around stuffed toys)
- Mahora Cooking Club (Chao Bao Zi)
- Mahora Chinese Martial Arts Club: (Martial Arts Demonstration)
- Mahora Rhythmic Gymnastics Club: Exhibition
- Mahora Equestrian Club: Exhibition
- Mahora "Go" Club: Go Tournament
- Mahora Tea Ceremony Club: Nodate (Open Air Tea Ceremony) Exhibition
- Mahora Library Expedition Club: Scavanger Hunt/Tour of the library (Yue and Haruna gain their Pactio cards at the end of the expedition on day 2)
- Mahora Manga Club: Caricatures
- Mahora Children's Literature Club: Group Reading
- Mahora Philosopher's Club: Discussion circle on Heidegger and Aristotle
- Mahora Divinition Club
- Mahora Drama Club: Stage Play
- Mahora Walking Club: Academy Walking Tour
- Mahora Cooking Club: Gourmet Festival
- Mahora Fine Arts Club: Art Exhibition
- Mahora Game Technology Club: Seating-style Galaxy War
- Mahora "Seven Wonders" Club
- Mahora Academy Historical Society
- Mahora Occult Researchers Club
- Mahora "World-Tree Lovers" Club
- Class 3-B: Cafe
- Class 3-A
Events[]
The following is a list of some the events held on the 78th Mahora Academy School Festival.
- Mahora Festival Cosplay Contest on Library Island (1st day)
- Mahora Imagination (Mahora's famous display, the light, water and fire-magic circle) a light display on the water near the Mahora Academy Bridge.
- Parade on the bridge
- Mahora Ferris Wheel
- Rock Festival (Ako's band, Dekopin Rocket, is at 6:20pm), night festival parade (as part of the 2nd midnight festival)
- Roller Coaster (may be a permenant fixture in the school city)
- Mahora Best Couple Contest (assisted by members of the Body Building Club to "forcibly recruit" contestants; this is a famous trait in Mahora Festival)
- Class 3-A Haunted House
- Mahora Martial Arts Tournament
- Mars Attack vrs Mahora Mage Order
Gallery[]
Other Appearances[]
A.I. Love You[]
- Main Article: School Festival
In A.I. Love You, Menjō High School holds a school festival where Saati Namba and Cynthia McDougal compete in a rendition of the Little Mermaid to see who between them would be Hitoshi Kobe's girlfriend.
Trivia[]
- The festival that appears in the manga is the 78th festival to be held in Mahora.
- Due to amount of money companies and sponsors invest in an event, it is normal for something like a quiz tournament to have a prize as large as 1-2 million yen.
- A small competition was held where festival goers can vote for their favorite event.
- Traditionally, most schools hold their festival on or around Culture Day (November 3rd), a national holiday, on a Saturday or Sunday, or sometimes both. However, some schools hold the festival as early as the first weekend in the September school trimester.
- According to the curriculum guidelines of the Ministry of Education, cultural festivals are part of special activities and are defined as "events which aim to use the results of everyday learning to heighten motivation".
- The Cultural Festivals are usually used as part of regular lessons in elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools, as such the students are obligated to attend. In universities, the cultural festivals are placed as extracurricular activity and so attendance is not mandatory.
- Mahora's magic teachers were tasked with preventing students from confessing their love in order to prevent the World Tree's magic from coming into effect and magically binding them together.
- The Mahora Engineering Department created a lifesize T-rex. On day 2 the T-rex went rogue and was stopped by Takahata and Asuna when its batteries went dry.
|