Aoi Matsuri — luxury itineraries and concierge.

Aoi Matsuri, from an operator's side.

Aoi Matsuri is a Heian court procession that leaves the Imperial Palace on 15 May and walks north to the Kamo shrines, in silk robes, ox-drawn carts and hollyhock leaves. It is the oldest and most restrained of Kyoto’s three great festivals: no floats, no night programme, no downtown closure. That restraint is the operational problem. The whole event is a few hours on a single morning, it can be held over in heavy rain, and a client whose Kyoto nights fall either side of 15 May simply misses it.

• The festival occupies one morning of one fixed date, so the entire Kyoto leg has to be timed around it rather than the other way round — a day either side and there is nothing to see.
• Mid-May is peak Kyoto on every measure, and the rooms that make the city comfortable are contracted long before the festival enters anyone’s planning.
• The procession is long, slow and spread over several kilometres of open road; reserved seating at the palace grounds and the shrine approaches is limited and sold in advance, and everywhere else is a standing kerb in full sun.

Basing decides the file.

Anywhere central and walkable works, because the route runs from the palace to the north of the city rather than through the shopping districts, and Kyoto traffic on the day is far lighter than during Gion Matsuri. We favour hotels north of Oike or near the palace so clients can reach a seat on foot in the morning, then spend the afternoon in the city instead of in a car.

When to start.

Nine to twelve months for the hotels, and as early as the seating is released for the reserved stands. The festival itself does not sell out the city — mid-May does that on its own — so the pressure is on the accommodation first and the seats second, which is the reverse of most Japanese festival files.