40th

Asakusa Samba Carnival Parade Contest

Date and time: Sunday, August 30, 2025, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Location: Asakusa Umamichi Street to Kaminarimon Street

The Asakusa Samba Carnival Parade Contest is a festival started by the people of Asakusa.

The Asakusa Samba Carnival Parade Contest, which began in 1981, has grown into a major summer tradition thanks to everyone's support.The enthusiastic performances of the participating teams, modelled on the original Rio Carnival in Brazil, are of a quality worthy of being called the largest carnival in the Northern Hemisphere.

Its origins date back to the late 1970s.
At the time, with the spread of television, customers began to stay away from Asakusa's entertainment halls and movie theaters, which had once been bustling, and a lonely atmosphere hung over the town.Concerned about this situation, the then Taito ward mayor, Eiichi Uchiyama, sought a solution and consulted with comedian Sansaburo Ban.Mr. Ban gladly agreed, saying it would be good for Asakusa, and suggested to the mayor, "How about samba?"This was the beginning of the Asakusa Samba Carnival.
In order to recreate the excitement of the Rio Carnival in Japan, a delegation was formed in 1980 to visit Brazil and study samba.The following year, on August 29, 1981, the memorable first "Asakusa Samba Carnival Parade Contest" was held.

Nowadays, samba carnivals are held all over Japan, but back then, very few people had ever seen samba live.
However, Asakusa has long been known as the birthplace of culture, and has a culture of actively adopting new ideas. As a result, samba, which was previously unknown, has continued to flourish to this day thanks to the understanding and cooperation of local people and the support of many others.

Brazilian products exhibition held at Sensoji Temple in conjunction with the Samba Carnival!

 August 14, 2025  Last updated:August 14, 2025 official

The postAsakusa Samba Carnival Parade Contest August 30, 2025first appeared onAsakusa Tourism Federation.

*This post automatically translated by google translator*