CITTA' Festival

La Cittadella, the European-style shopping and entertainment complex near Kawasaki Station, will hold its annual CITTA' Festival. This year the festival shifts to June so that it coincides with the traditional Sanno Festival of Inage Shrine, Kawasaki's chief guardian shrine, combining a commercial venue's summer event with a long-established local religious festival.

The pairing brings mikoshi (portable shrine) processions and shrine rites into La Cittadella's Mediterranean-style streets, alongside live performances and food stalls. The Sanno Festival, which the organisers note is sometimes called "the Gion Festival of the East", traditionally took place in August; from 2026 the Kawasaki Sanno Festival moves to June.

The festival's recurring food event, an original "YOICHI" market returns with more than 100 stalls. Offerings range from street food to fuller menus, including ice and shaved ice made with natural ice from the Yatsugatake mountains. The market runs along Cinecitta Street and the Arena Cittadella area. Crowd-control entry limits may apply, and some stalls accept cashless payment only.

Mikoshi processions and street culture

Cinecitta Street becomes the focus of the shrine rites. The festival opens with the goryo-ire, a ceremony transferring the deity's spirit from the shrine's main hall into the mikoshi, while the togyo procession carries the portable shrines through the streets at dusk. Visitors can see multiple mikoshi paraded through the streetscape, displays of portable shrines from neighbouring districts, and the gathering of around 20 mikoshi that head together toward Inage Shrine. Other elements include a children's mikoshi, the kodomo-mikoshi-kuguri (a traditional rite in which children pass beneath a mikoshi to pray for health and growth), and evening processions staged against fire and lighting effects.

A range of performers also appears across the site, including taiko drumming, bon odori dancing, Brazilian beats, chindon street musicians, and more.

Kawasaki Brave Thunders × AKB48 wall art

From June 19, La Cittadella will display a collaborative project between the B.League basketball club Kawasaki Brave Thunders and the idol group AKB48. Members painted basketballs as canvases and photographed them at Kawasaki landmarks - including Todoroki Arena, Yumemigasaki Zoo, La Cittadella, and Kawasaki Daishi. The resulting 16 panels will be displayed around La Cittadella for about three years.