On October 10th (Sunday), a music festival was held at the Ujigawa shopping street near the university, and 10 first-year sociology students participated as staff.
This music festival started seven years ago.It's not the kind of amateur bragging that you might imagine when you hear a shopping street music festival, but rather major artists whose names everyone knows, indie bands before their major debuts, dance units, local idols, and young entertainers. And so on, quite sharp performers gather.One stage wasn't enough, so we set up two main stages on the mountain side and the sea side, as well as mini stages using vacant stores in various places.The shopping street in front of Nishimotomachi Station is filled with a large number of spectators from morning to night.
And what's surprising is that all of these events are prepared by young people living in the shopping districts and neighborhoods, without the involvement of event companies.It is said that this music festival began as a chat at a bar in a shopping district where music lovers gather. Or he casually says, "I'm doing it by finding someone I know," but no matter how you look at it, the quality of the work is professional.Perhaps this shopping street, which is the starting point for people's circles, is the birthplace of people with extraordinary talent and passion.I think there is no other shopping street like this.
It seems that the Ujigawa shopping district has been severely affected by the new coronavirus epidemic.
While all local events in Kobe City have been canceled, last year's Ujigawa Music Festival was still held despite taking double and triple infection control measures.The artists who appeared said, "I'm really grateful for giving me a place to work."
And this year.This year as well, we were moving in the direction of implementing it while taking more infection control measures than last year, but the outdoor music festival held in Aichi Prefecture in late August was heavily criticized by the media for its poor infection control measures. Yes, there was a tremendous headwind for the music event.
In early September, one month before the event, the Ujigawa Music Festival will make the decision to hold the event without an audience.The decision was made to perform live on a stage set up in a shopping district, but without audiences, and to stream only online.In other words, it is a decision that "I will not cancel even then!"
The first-year students of the Department of Sociology participated in the music festival under these special circumstances.
If passers-by stopped on the sidewalks on both sides of the stage, there would be no audience, so if there were people who were standing still, I would call them to their attention.
The work itself wasn't that busy, and from the impressions I received later, it seems that the live performance I saw up close was more impressive.
“It was more powerful than I thought, and I was surprised. Also, the songs were all exciting, and before I knew it, I was clapping and taking pictures with my smartphone.”
"It was very interesting. I was moved by the performance and enthusiasm of the performers."
“I was able to meet a wonderful band that I would not have been able to meet if I was passive.”
“I was moved by the presence of various amazing artists.”
In addition, it seems that the dexterity, enthusiasm, and seriousness of the people working behind the scenes in the shopping district were impressive.
"When I actually went to the venue, I saw the performers, volunteers, and people from the shopping district all working together to revitalize the local community, and the Ujigawa Music Festival is made possible thanks to the cooperation of so many people. I realized that."
“It was impressive that many people were working to make the Ujigawa Music Festival a success at the venue, which had no audience due to online. I thought that behind-the-scenes efforts would be important to liven up the event."
The impressions you get from these sites will become the seeds of "things you want to know more about."
For example, the artists
Who in each shopping district and what kind of connection did you get the request to appear?
What kind of people participated in the "executive committee" that carried out such a music festival, and what kind of work did each of them do?
Speaking of shopping streets, there are probably "unions" made up of older people, but isn't there a conflict with the young executive committee?
What were the opinions and discussions that led up to the decision to hold the event without spectators?
What was your budget and how did you secure it?
Do you have any strong feelings about holding your own music festival instead of leaving it to an event company like other local events?
Why did the Ujigawa Music Festival try to face the headwinds when most events were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic?
This class is called "service learning", and the "service (volunteer activity)" in the community is the trigger.It is an opportunity to discover “things you want to know more” that can only be found by interacting with people in the field.
Now, the class is about "things you want to know more about" that everyone has found on the ground, and "things you want to know more about" that you can see by comparing examples of regional revitalization in various parts of Japan and what was on the ground in the Ujigawa shopping district. , I am in the process of collecting and organizing them.
These "things I want to know more about" will be presented in an interview with the executive committee chairman of the music festival at the end of November.This interview with the students, the summary of the interview results, and the web publication are the climax of this class.It will be the ′′ learning ′′ part of service learning.
Once you are ready to publish it on the web, please let me introduce it again in this column.
Faculty of Sociology Department of Sociology Associate Professor Takashi Namiki
⇒ Faculty of Sociology page
