Design Festa 2009

The Design Festa is a big art / creativity / expression / selling shit thing held twice a year in Tokyo. Anyone can set up a booth, so that means you have hella random things going on. I've read about this event many many times, and finally went.

But on the way there:



The anti STD campaign isn't supported by a government health board, but by Soft On Demand, a porno company. There should be a big Yokoso Japan sign next to it. Seriously, the powers that be are on terrorist alert status when someone might have the H1N1 flu, but when it comes to sexual health, this country is a big ostrich with it's head in the sand.

Anyways....



If you read English language Japanese blogs, you'll probably find every single one talking about the Design Festa. It's advertised every single week in Metropolis Magazine, which is Tokyo's shitty English language magazine. Regardless, every foreigner sees this magazine. And every foreigner has a shitty blog. Here's my shitty account of some things I saw.



The first place I went was all dudes trying to sell design t-shirts for like $50 each. These knit hats were pretty fresh though, and the nose made a squeaky sound. Does it get better?



Yeah, traditional looking Japanese chicks with machine guns. There was a lot of art with cute Japanese schoolgirls, or geishas, or salarymen, with guns or swords. I think this has been a theme for the past 5 years around these parts though.



I didn't budget any money for this event, but I totally should have bought one of his masks.



The sign wants me to sit. SIT DOWN!



Hot Traxx you say? I'm listening. Let's see what kind of music... The first track was a Soulja Boy jam. Dammit DJ Yuma. I guess technically that is a hot traxx, so you win this round.



All kinds of animal skeletons and... dead baby mice preserved in bottles. But if you look closer, there are little tiny crowns on their heads. Everyone polled (2 people so far) think this is some naaaasty shit, but I dig it.



Snot bubbles.



I've never before seen two people minding their own business as hard as these two. They were busting a flow, but without speaking... and there was no music. Freestyle rapping mime robots. And like no one was interested in it. Some dude dressed as Jack Sparrow was being mobbed for photos left and right, but not these guys.

Photo bonus! I spy a bag of robot snacks on the ground.



A lot of things were just plain pretty, and not about getting me to buy something.



An illuminated wall of glory holes. And, for some reason, only girls were peeking inside.





A tiny little world made from cardboard cuttings.





Dude had a bunch of old school gameboys hooked up to a sampler and was producing some quality sound. All the other sound instalations were just noise bullshit, but this guy took it to the next level.

Also I think we have the same Uniqlo track suit. Pimpin!





So, yeah, you should go to this event. It's only 1000 yen. If you want to buy funky design shirts, funky buttons, dead things passed off as art, amateur overpriced silver jewelry, hella postcards (seriously every booth had postcards for sale), or some crap ramen... Design Festa is your one stop shop. It seems small from my photos, but there were thousands of exhibitions here. So go already!