Image: Matsuri | matsuri 26: Japanese Music Experience LONDON

London is hosting the first European edition of a famous Japanese music festival

by · Time Out London

Japanese music is having a moment in London. Folk star Ichiko Aoba played the Royal Albert Hall back in March. City pop legend Masayoshi Takanaka headlined a day festival in Crystal Palace Park over the summer. The EFG London Jazz Festival is packed with Japanese musicians (and recreates Haruki Murakami’s jazz café). There was even an expo of virtual singer Hatsune Miku at the O2 this week.

And now London has been revealed as the first European host of a Japanese music showcase called Matsuri. The event will land in the UK capital in December, featuring three internationally acclaimed artists.

While matsuri can broadly translate to any sort of festival in Japan, it typically refers to a traditional public event with parades of portable shrines, deities, musicians and dancers. London hosts one of these traditional events every year in Trafalgar Square, with the most recent edition taking place at the start of October.

London’s December ‘matsuri’ will be of the more modern sort: fewer taiko drummers, more guitar rock. The music showcase series has previously hosted an event in Los Angeles – with Ado, YOASOBI, and ATARASHII GAKKO! – and will have another edition in Bangkok in February.

The three artists performing in London are all likely to be known to the capital’s Nipponophiles. There’s Harajuku fashion and J-pop icon Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (who headlined Margins United in Tottenham in 2025), Kyoto garage punks Otoboke Beaver (read a Time Out review of their blistering 2024 Glastonbury set here) and indie rockers Hitsujibungaku.

Image: matsuri 26: Japanese Music Experience LONDONmatsuri 26: Japanese Music Experience LONDON

matsuri 26: Japanese Music Experience LONDON will take place at Outernet Live on Monday December 14 2026. Get tickets from £40 on Ticketmaster here.

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