Hello and greetings!
I'm Kazumi Teriya from the Student Organisation, "Horizon" and head of the Kouri Night Festival Organising Committee.

I was born in Okinawa and have been here for most of my life. However, it wasn't until my 3rd year in University that I eventually went to Kouri Island for the first time. Kouri Island is a small island off the mainland that wasn't connected until 2005. This was done by a long bridge over the wonderfully blue ocean. This bridge is like a gateway to a whole different world, traversing the brilliantly clear waters, so clean and beautiful that it might even be a little distracting to drivers! Driving over this bridge is an amazing experience in and of itself!

After getting over this amazing bridge, the first thing that you will come across is a beautiful beach, where you can go out to snorkel among the coral reefs, as well as see bright and incredibly coloured fish that are characteristic of pacific islands.

After a long day playing by the ocean you can then relax and watch a beautiful sunset leading to an extraordinary star-filled sky, letting you be washed over with a sense of peace!

Heading into the island you can see a various assortment of old style Japanese houses as well as fields of sugarcane, creating a wonderfully colour filled scenic view. By taking a rental bicycle around this area leads to an unforgettable experience, as well as letting you explore the multitude of small restaurants that are on the island. This island is perfect for not only short stays but also long breaks!

Kouri Island has about 1,000,000 visitors each year to the island. However, it has only been about 14 years since the island was connected to the main Okinawan Island. With this, the amount of events that happen on this island are not very well conveyed outside this small island. Furthermore, while tourist come during the day, many don’t stay during the night, with the tourists not spending much during the day as well as leaving a wanting night time economy to stall.

The first time to experience Kouri Island was in my 3rd year at university, when I took a trip with a friend. This was a drive at night and it is one trip I will never forget.
In my 24 years of living in Okinawa, this place was where I felt that it was quintessentially OKINAWA! After this, no other place in Okinawa would live up to it. So after this, I set out to hold future events for international exchanges and so on, on Kouri Island, and in doing so, I was able to see the islands magnificent charms even more!
The abundance of nature, the gorgeous scenery, the warmth of the people, these things plus many others make this island a must see destination.

So with this Night Festival, we hope that we can both create an event that is here to stay, as well as show that Kouri Island is an essential place to travel to if you're a tourist to Japan and Okinawa!

We have a rather ambitious idea of what this years festival should include!

①Candle Road（Going around special spots）
②Stamp Rally （Kouri Island Quiz）
③Live Performances（Dances, singing, and others）
④Photo Contest（Pictures of the sea, nature, the buildings, and "Instagrammable" spots, etc）
⑤Pop-up Souvenir Stalls（Special goods）

①Candle Road

Our society normal conducts cleaning of the area, and we plan to use the plastic bottles that we collect along with sand from the beach to make candles!
As we with families with small children, we will use LED lamps instead of candles. We plan to make this even bigger than last year, with the road taking people to amazing photo spots! We also want to display art work and so on!

②Stamp Rally

This one is a new one for this year! We want to help promote the area of Kouri Island, so we will be creating a stamp rally using a traditional fan that will allow for people that come to go around and find out more of the island by visiting different stands at the Festival during the event!

③Live Performance

We'll be bringing in a collection of performers from within Okinawa, allowing them to show off their talents!! With a rich traditional culture, as well as a multitude of warm inviting comedians, school children, and university students and singers, we hope that everyone can watch the performances and feel the Okinawan spirit!

④Photo Contest

We want to hold a SNS Photo Contest that everyone that attends the festival will be able to join in with! By using the special hashtag on Twitter and Instagram, we hope that we can get a lot of amazing pictures and then award a winner of the contest!

⑤Pop-up Souvenir Stalls

We want to hold a few stalls were people that attend can buy souvenirs that have been made or created in the area or things that are famous from the island, allowing for us to be able promote the island even more!

After running a series of various events, one of the biggest problems that comes up is always the funding behind the event or project.
Recently, the idea of using crowdfunding has come up, but I hadn't taken the time to look into this subject properly, and so we haven't used it.
However after looking into and coming across Japankuru Funding, we felt that it would be a perfect fit.
The Kouri Island Night Festival 2019 is both looking to promote the development of the local area, as well as the promotion of area as being an amazing sightseeing area.
Those that visit Kouri Island are enraptured by the charms of the island and become repeat visitors!
So with this in mind, with Japankuru being able to reach those that might not know about the amazing charms of Kouri Island, we chose to use crowdfunding to help raise money for the festival!

OFFICIAL SNS

HomePage：

https://kourinightfes.studio.design

Twitter：

https://twitter.com/Kouri_NightFes

①We're preparing special official Kouri Night Festival 2019 items as rewards, these are things such as original T-Shirts and Stickers! (The returns containing the T-Shirts and Stickers are also available to be sent abroad if you can not receive them at the festival! Please choose which you way you would like to receive the return and write it in the remarks section)
②Some of the more expensive return levels give you the chance to set up your own booth at the festival! This is a unique chance to promote to those that are coming to the festival!
③The most important thing that we want out of this project no matter what return you back is that you come not as a tourist, but as a partner! We want you to feel a connection to the island and have the urge to come next year as well! 😊

Inquiries：Kouri Island Night Festival Organising Committee
E-Mail Address：kourizim.nh@gmail.com
Phone Number(representatives no.)：+8190-6866-8661