When you start heading out to corn and hay mazes over the next couple of months, you’ll probably have fun, but chances are that you won’t see anything like what they’ve got in Japan. From now until October 31st, the Niigata prefecture, in Northern Japan, will be hosting a Wara Art Festival. So, what is it and why does it happen?
In Niigata, Rice is king, and it is now time for the rice harvest. Part of that means that there is a metric crap ton of rice straw (wara) left laying around. In the past, it would all be either mowed under to use as fertilizer or fed to the animals over the winter. However, for the last 9 years, they’ve been partnering up with local art students to create an art festival based around massive sculptures made entirely out of the stuff. In commemoration of this year, the tenth anniversary of the festival, the students have taken it upon themselves to create sculptures twice as big as in the past.
Get an even better look in this video: