Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri — luxury itineraries and concierge.

Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri, from an operator's side.

Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri is not a procession. Teams haul enormous carved wooden danjiri through the streets of Kishiwada at a running pace and swing them around corners at speed, with a carpenter's representative dancing on the roof as it turns. It takes place on a September weekend, with further rounds in some districts in October, and the dates move annually. For a trade buyer it is the antidote to the assumption that Japanese festivals are stately: this is fast, loud and physically hazardous to anyone standing in the wrong place, which is exactly the part a file has to solve.

• The floats run at speed through public streets and the corner turns are the point of the festival and the risk in it; where a client stands is a safety decision before it is a viewing decision.
• The September dates are tied to a weekend and move each year, and the October rounds belong to different districts with their own schedules — so 'Danjiri' is not one date to plan against.
• Kishiwada has no accommodation that suits a luxury file, so the day runs out of Osaka and the whole thing turns on transfer timing into a town that closes its own streets.

Basing decides the file.

Osaka, without hesitation — Kitahama, Nakanoshima or Umeda — and travel down for the day. Kishiwada is close enough by rail and road to make that comfortable, and nothing in the town itself would hold a high-end client for a night.

When to start.

Six months for the Osaka rooms and the vehicle, held before the dates publish. The September weekend moves and the October rounds are district-specific, so we confirm which district and which day before anything is promised to a client.