2025 Natsumatsuri Family Festival is on Saturday, August 16

Media Advisory

WHAT:    
Celebrate summer with us at JANM’s Democracy Center and the Norman Y. Mineta Democracy Plaza featuring free cultural performances, crafts, and activities for families and kids of all ages!

The festival is sponsored by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Nissan Foundation, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, and the Port of Long Beach. The media sponsor is The Rafu Shimpo.

WHEN:
Saturday, August 16 from 12 p.m.–5 p.m.

DETAILS:
This year’s family festival will feature:

• Exclusive activities connected to JANM’s new exhibition, Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community
• Storytime with former professional race car driver and Sachiko and the Bully author Nadine Sachiko Hsu
• Shopping at the pop-up JANM Store in the Democracy Center lobby
   
• Hot Wheels racing and cultural performances including bon odori dancing, improv, and taiko
• 1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m.: Obon Lecture and Community Dance
• 2:30 p.m.–3 p.m.: Cold Tofu Improv and Comedy Group
• 3 p.m.–5 p.m.: Hot Wheels Race Track by Old Japanese Car Meet
• 4 p.m.–4:30 p.m.: Makoto Taiko Performance
   
• A scavenger hunt in Little Tokyo
• Fun summer-themed crafts and origami
• And more!

WHERE:
Japanese American National Museum
100 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012

RSVP:
RSVP at janm.org/events. 

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About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, JANM promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a center for civil rights, ensuring that the hard-fought lessons of the World War II incarceration are not forgotten. A Smithsonian Affiliate and one of America’s Cultural Treasures, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories. JANM is a center for the arts as well as history. It provides a voice for Japanese Americans and a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public in 1992, JANM has presented over one hundred exhibitions onsite while traveling forty exhibits to venues such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and to several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America. JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; programs will continue on the JANM campus, throughout Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Southern California, and beyond from early January 2025 through late 2026. For more information, visit janm.org/OnTheGo or follow us on social media @jamuseum.