No.60 45th Anniversary of City Administration Implementation 15th Iinagi City Citizen Festival

In the past, city-wide events such as the Industrial Festival and the Citizens' Cultural Festival were held separately at different times. On the other hand, starting in 1990, in conjunction with the beginning of the Tama New Town area occupancy, the Garden City Tama event has been held at Shiroyama Park (Koyodai) under the leadership of UR and Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
The cancellation of this Garden City Tama in 1998 prompted the organization of a citizens' study group in 1999 to consider the nature of the citizens' festival.
As a result, taking into account opinions such as the significant role of the festival as a new place for interaction between new and old residents, the "1st Fureai Festival" was held at Shiroyama Park in May 2001. Subsequently, based on opinions from various departments, it was held jointly at Central Park in October 2002 as the "1st I no Machi Inagi Citizen Festival," and it has continued to this day, marking the 15th edition this year.
This year, we were able to hold the "Fun Singing the Ninth Symphony Choir 2016 Concert" as part of the Citizen Festival Interaction Festival. This was the third year of the Ninth Symphony concert, and by positioning it as a Citizen Festival concert, we have decided to continue holding it in the future.

In addition, the Wadaiko Contest has seen an increase in participants year by year. Due to the limited number of groups that can perform on the day of the event, it was held on a separate date, October 10, 2016, and the number of categories was expanded from one to three. In the "Elementary School Club Activities Division," six groups participated, with the Wadaiko Team Kozakura from Setagaya City Higashifukasawa Elementary School winning. In the "Youth Division," four groups participated, with Shotoku Gakuen Junior and Senior High School winning. In the "General Division," five groups participated, with Inagi's Koyuu winning, and they performed on the day of the Citizen Festival.
I believe that by allowing open participation not only within Inagi City, but also by competing with strong teams, it will lead to an improvement in the level of wadaiko in Inagi. Let's all work hard so that wadaiko is recognized as being from Inagi.
Furthermore, the stage section was held at i Plaza Hall from November 5 to 6, 2016. Including this, the Citizen Festival has grown into a large event lasting about a month.
This year marks the 45th anniversary of Inagi City becoming a city from a town. As we approach the 50th anniversary, we have kept our commemorative projects modest, but we announced the "establishment of the city bird" at the opening ceremony of the citizens' festival.
The city bird was selected through a citizens' meeting with 10 participants, where 8 types of candidates were chosen. A public vote was held from August 15 to September 15, 2016. The result was that the "Common Kestrel" was selected, receiving approximately 24 percent of the total 1,148 votes, with 281 votes. It is a symbolic bird that represents the richness of Inagi City's ecosystem, and there are no examples of such a selection in neighboring cities, making it a good choice that reflects Inagi's originality.
The Citizen Festival has seen an increase in the number of visitors year by year, growing into an important project that contributes to the revitalization of the town. Moving forward, we will continue to strive to make it a festival that brings joy to even more guests as an event for citizens organized by the Citizen Executive Committee.