Lake Biwa Great Fireworks Festival 2026 Confirmed

びわ湖大花火大会 — Otsu, Shiga (Kansai)

The Lake Biwa Great Fireworks Festival launches about 12,000 shells from barges off Otsu Port on Japan's largest lake, with bursts and their reflections doubling across the water and the Hira mountains behind. The 2026 edition is the 40th anniversary, promising an enlarged program on the lake that has hosted some of Kansai's most photogenic hanabi.

Background

Held since 1984 as Shiga's flagship summer event, the festival is themed each year around the lake and the prefecture's history, with the barge-launched wide starmines over open water as its constant.

Getting there

The venue is the Otsu Port lakefront, about 10 minutes on foot from Keihan Biwako-Hamaotsu Station or 15 from JR Otsu Station — which is a single 9-minute train hop from Kyoto Station, making this effectively Kyoto's big fireworks night.

Tips

• Its proximity to Kyoto is the superpower: stay in Kyoto, ride one stop, and walk back to a normal hotel supply afterward — but so does everyone; JR Otsu station control after the show is intense.
• Paid lakefront seats face the barges square-on; free areas around Nagisa Park fill from mid-afternoon.
• A weekday-evening slot (around Aug 6–8) is deliberate crowd management — check the exact 2026 date.
• The anniversary edition will sell paid seating faster than usual; book when sales open in early summer.

Last verified against the official source: Sat, July 4, 2026