The Sumida River Fireworks Festival - one of the biggest summer events in Tokyo, Japan, has just returned after a 3-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The organizers of the Sumida River Fireworks Festival (Tokyo, Japan) said that this year the annual event attracted a record number of 1.035 million visitors, exceeding the average of 900,000 people as in previous times. The last time it was held in 2019, the fireworks festival attracted 959,000 visitors.
People wait to watch fireworks in Tokyo
Cancelled from 2020 to 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Sumida River Fireworks Festival was restored this year after the Japanese government classified Covid-19 in the same category as seasonal flu in May, meaning there are no restrictions on attendance levels.
Since then, many fireworks festivals in Tokyo throughout July have seen record or near-record numbers of visitors. For the Sumida River Fireworks Festival on July 29, an estimated 20,000 fireworks were launched overnight from two barges moored on the Sumida River, near Asakusa and the Tokyo Skytree.
Sumida River Fireworks Festival in Tokyo on the night of July 29
The Sumida River Fireworks Festival was expected to attract a large crowd this year, so organizers deployed security guards and neighborhood forces to help control the crowds. The Tokyo Metro and the Tokyo Metropolitan Transport Bureau added extra trains to cope with the surge in visitors. However, many areas of Tokyo were still congested due to the festival's appeal.
According to VOV