Design Festa

This last weekend was Design Festa 33 and daddy-ebi was working Saturday so I asked Ebi-kun if he would like to go with me. He said yes, I was a bit dubious since it is a long train ride and a busy day but he said he could do it.

Design Festa is different to a industry exhibition in the way that anyone can have a stall. Their motto is that if you do something creative and original you have have a stall, so as you wander around you will see a professional illustrator next to a college student who is showing her textile design work, next to a candle maker, next to a henna tattoo artist. Makes it a very interesting place to wander around.

There are also different characters wandering around and they seemed to be attracted to a certain little boy....

Another cool thing is the artists at work, there are different sized walls and you can watch the artists as they paint, I saw this lady last time too but I didn't manage to pick up info so I have no idea who she is, sorry.

There are also two stages, the one outside seemed to showcasing bands whereas the inside one had all sorts, we watched a fashion show by feUillexRebell and a dance show by SmileSoulDance.

This guys work is amazing, Kisara Shogo is a paper illustrator, yes, it is all made out of paper, I love his work, it is unbelievable.

I don't know who this character is but Ebi-kun was impressed with her his rather large sword, you can't tell in this shot but she he was also walking round in rather large boots, hats off to her him for managing to walk around in them all day. *thanks to Emily, I now know that this is Sesshomaru*

It is not really orientated towards kids but I think kids can get a lot out of it and kids under 12 go free, extra bonus! Some of the exhibitors have items that are aimed at kids, Ebi-kun enjoyed helping to build with these blocks. I didn't get as much time to mooch as last time due to Ebi-kun dragging me off in all directions but it was interesting to see what caught his eye and he also had no problem about asking exhibitors questions about their work.

It is a two day event but I'm not sure if I could cope with two days there, it is very much a sensory overload, I did try and take in which exhibits stood out and why, sometimes it was the products that made the stand pop, like this super cute candles by Kusu.

Of course, refreshments are needed and that is all catered for, there are cafes set up and a food court selling a great range of food, we ended up with some delicious French herbed chicken and fries and fresh lemonade and we got to watch more artists at work as we ate.

I certainly didn't pick up as many business cards as last time and only took a fraction of the amount of photos, a lot of them seemed to be of Ebi-kun and yet another character, this rabbit was like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, we would keep seeing him then he would disappear down another row of stalls, eventually we caught up with him.

Before we left, Ebi-kun got to meet Mochi-Usagi and the designer who created him, this character has been going for quite a long time now, over 10 years I think, often the cute characters last for a season or two then disappear, Afro-Ken is a good example, where is he now?

We caught the 4pm train home absolutely exhausted but we both had a good day. I am seriously considering a stall for the next Design Festa which is in November, looks like it would be so much fun. Compared to last time there didn't seemed to be as many stalls and it wasn't as busy, I'm not sure if that was to do with the season or whether the earthquake had sometime to do with it. Ebi-kun managed without too much whinging, I think if I did have a stall and talked daddy-ebi into helping both him and Ebi-kun would enjoy themselves too.