Sendai Tanabata Festival

The Sendai Tanabata Festival is a tradition dating back to Date Masamune, founder of the Sendai domain, and is counted among the Three Great Festivals of Tohoku alongside the Aomori Nebuta and Akita Kanto festivals. Held August 6–8 each year, the central arcades from Sendai Station to Chuo-dori and Ichibancho are filled with about 3,000 bamboo decorations that shops and artisans spend months crafting. Towering colorful streamers hang from bamboo poles over ten meters tall, and the seven traditional ornaments each carry their own meaning. From the eve-of-festival fireworks to the final day, it draws more than two million visitors annually.