Gifu Nagaragawa Fireworks Festival Finished Major festival
ぎふ長良川花火大会 — Gifu (Tokai)
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- Date
- Sat, August 8, 2026 (The 2026 edition has concluded — 2027 dates are not yet announced)
- Time
- 7:30 PM – 8:40 PM
- Venue
- Nagara River near Nagara Bridge, Gifu (長良川河畔(長良橋下流〜金華橋上流))
- Scale
- ~10,000 fireworks · ~300K visitors
- Bad weather
- Held in light rain; postponed to 2026-08-22 if stormy weather or high water; no further postponement if the 22nd is also cancelled
- Official site
- nagara-hanabi.jp
The Gifu Nagaragawa Fireworks Festival sends about 10,000 shells — including 600-meter-wide starmine walls — over the river famous for 1,300 years of cormorant fishing, with Gifu Castle lit on its mountain perch above the bursts. Born in 2023 from the merger of two historic newspaper-run festivals, it kept the scale of both.
Background
For decades the Nagara River hosted two separate major festivals on consecutive weekends, run by rival newspapers; they merged into a single city-led event in 2023, inheriting a combined tradition stretching back to 1946.
Getting there
The venue is the Nagara riverbank near Nagara Bridge, about 15–20 minutes by bus from JR Gifu or Meitetsu Gifu stations (bus platforms run continuous shuttles on the day). Gifu is 20 minutes from Nagoya.
Tips
- The castle-above-fireworks composition is unique in Japan — the south bank east of Nagara Bridge lines it up best.
- If skies threaten, note the unusual rain plan: postponement is to late August, not the next day.
- Cormorant fishing boats operate the same stretch of river — booking an ukai dinner boat for a non-festival night makes a great pairing.
- Buses back to the station overwhelm quickly; walking the 45 minutes into town center is often faster than queueing.
Frequently asked questions
- How crowded does Gifu Nagaragawa Fireworks Festival get?
- About 300,000 people come to Gifu for it. Fireworks start at 7:30 PM, so plan to be in place well before that. Trains and roads out of the venue are at their worst in the 30 minutes after the finale — waiting it out is usually faster than joining the crush.
Last verified against the official source: Sun, August 2, 2026