“Drive-in Fireworks” were viewable from the comfort of your own car on August 23 at Takino Suzuran Hillside Park in Sapporo’s Minami Ward. The idea for this event was proposed as a way to avoid crowding to help prevent novel coronavirus spreading. Four hundred cars gathered at the venue, and approximately 2,500 fireworks lit up the night sky.
An action committee made up mainly of local businesses held the event using money raised from crowd funding through online donations. The committee gifted one admission ticket per car for a 15,000 yen donation. This actualized “a new kind of fireworks display that allows visitors to enjoy the event while also eliminating contact with other people in this environment of mass event cancellation due to the spread of the pandemic.”
The fireworks started at a little after 7:00 pm. Heralded by loud booms, red and yellow chrysanthemum fireworks soared upwards to a height near three hundred meters above the ground, and cheering was heard from spectators in their cars.