Nagaoka Festival Fireworks

The Nagaoka Festival Fireworks is the fireworks display of the Nagaoka Festival, fired over two nights on the Shinano River in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture. The Nagaoka Fireworks Foundation stages it around three themes: a memorial for the dead, recovery, and a prayer for peace. Ticketed viewing areas line both banks of the river.

History

The Nagaoka Festival traces its origin to the Nagaoka Recovery Festival (Nagaoka Fukkosai, 長岡復興祭), first held in 1946 to pray for the city's rebuilding after the 1945 air raid on Nagaoka. Fireworks in the city go back further: the first successful launch of a sho-sanjakudama (正三尺玉), a full three shaku shell, took place in Nagaoka in 1926.

What happens

Each night opens with Shiragiku (白菊), white chrysanthemum, a memorial shell named by the late fireworks maker Kase Seiji for comrades who died in the war. Kase helped build the display into its present form.

The Phoenix fireworks are the event's symbol of recovery, made possible by support from across Japan and fired on a very large scale. Three shaku shells go up on both nights. The Niagara (ナイアガラ), a set piece on Chosei Bridge stretching about 350 m across the river, is lit together with a three shaku shell. The foundation describes the sound and light of large shells over the Shinano River, the longest river in Japan, as something only this setting allows.

The 2026 edition

The 2026 edition marked 120 years since Nagaoka became a city and 100 years since the first three shaku shell. Forty large pieces were fired each night, one more than the year before, and the Niagara on Chosei Bridge returned after three years of bridge pier works. The Phoenix moved later in the program to spread out departures. A two minute music star mine was added outside the program to mark the release of the film Kimi to Hanabi to Yakusoku to (君と花火と約束と), partly set in Nagaoka. Seats for disabled visitors were added on the left bank as well as the right, and a new section was set aside for local high school students.