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NMI team a hit at the Domatsuri festival
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Posted on Sep 02 2008
The Domatsuri team from the CNMI recently concluded their tour in Nagoya during the 10th Annual Domatsuri Festival.
The CNMI team was considered a special guest and, although they were the smallest group, they were very popular among the performers, who were inspired by the small but very energetic delegation and were amazed at the attire worn by the CNMI team.
The Domatsuri Festival is the biggest festival in Nagoya, taking place each summer and attracting dancers from all over Japan. In order to compete, the groups have to have at least 40 members, but throughout the whole festival the groups had more than 100 members each.
The history of the Festival started in 1999, when a group of college students created a dance festival that would communicate the excitement of dance in Nagoya and to express that excitement to the outside world. The first festival had only 26 dance teams with 1,500 performers. Today, the festival welcomes 200 dance teams with 23,000 performers from inside and outside Japan, and some 1.85 million viewers. It has become one of the largest such events in Japan.
Five years ago, through Chamolinan Cultural Village Inc., Pacific Development Inc., Marianas Visitors Authority and the Saipan Mayor’s Office, the Domatsuri performers from Nagoya were introduced to the CNMI, joining the Liberation Day festivities as a part of their way of expressing the importance of fostering a good relation between people and both countries through Domatsuri.
The participation of the CNMI delegation in the Domatsuri festival was made possible with the help of Northwest Airlines and Marianas Visitors Authority, which both sponsored the group; and to Mayor Juan B. Tudela.
In return, the CNMI received half a million dollars worth of free advertising through the Domatsuri event, from commemorative booklets and media exposure, to the millions of viewers watching the event on nationwide Japanese television. [B][I](PR)[/I][/B]
