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This article explores strategies to win the increasingly competitive ticket race and provides practical solutions for the real challenges of attending the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival.
If you’re looking for more general information about the highlights and charm of the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival, please refer to the article below.
Read more about Nagaoka Fireworks Festival
For detailed guidance on how to secure viewing tickets without entering the lottery, check the article below.
Read more about How to Get Nagaoka Fireworks Tickets Without the Lottery
The Nagaoka Grand Fireworks Festival is counted among Japan’s top three fireworks festivals.
Its immense scale and overwhelming power draw massive crowds, making the competition for tickets extremely intense. The venue itself also becomes very crowded on the day of the event.
| Year | Number of Attendees |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 340,000 |
| 2023 | 295,000 |
For first-timers traveling from far away, the Nagaoka Grand Fireworks Festival can be quite a challenge.
In this guide, we’ll reveal what others won’t tell you—the hidden realities of the event—and share winning strategies to avoid risks like soaring ticket prices and overwhelming crowds.
Please note that the ticket purchasing process for visitors from overseas differs from that for residents in Japan. Details about ticket purchases for international travelers for the 2025 festival will be updated as soon as the official information is announced.
Ticket sales period for international travelers: May 26 - June 6 (Japan Standard Time)
Let’s first clarify what makes the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival particularly difficult to attend.
The Nagaoka Fireworks Festival only offers paid seating.
In other words, you must purchase a ticket to watch the fireworks at the venue.
Ticket sales are conducted through a lottery, and only the winners are allowed to purchase tickets. A limited number of remaining tickets are then sold on a first-come, first-served basis. The lottery is extremely competitive.
So the first major hurdle is the “difficulty of obtaining viewing tickets.”
Tickets for the Nagaoka Grand Fireworks Festival mailed by the ticket center
If you’re visiting the festival from outside Niigata Prefecture without any planning, you’re likely to face serious issues on your way home.
“Driving here was a mistake—traffic is completely gridlocked.”
“I took the train, but the station is packed—I can’t even get inside, let alone board.”
If you encounter such chaos in an unfamiliar area past 22:00, it could be a nightmare. This is exactly the kind of situation many face when trying to leave the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival.
Driving might get you home eventually, but if you’re relying on trains, there’s the added pressure of catching the last train.
The photo below shows the crowd heading toward Nagaoka Station after the fireworks.
This was taken around 9:35 pm, and many more were still flooding into the station after that. Will everyone make it onto a train before the last one departs?
The congestion in front of Nagaoka Station is also intense.
So the second major challenge is not having the “know-how to avoid the crowds and get home safely.”
(In recent years, traffic control has been improved along the routes to Nagaoka Station and at the station entrance itself, and it seems that most attendees have been able to board trains or Shinkansen safely.)
But don’t worry. To help you turn the Nagaoka Grand Fireworks Festival into an unforgettable summer memory, we’ll guide you through strategies to overcome these challenges and enjoy the event to the fullest.
General ticket sales are done via lottery.
So if you miss out in the lottery, you won’t be able to purchase paid viewing tickets.
Later, if there are any leftover tickets, a first-come, first-served online sale is held.
However, the remaining tickets are extremely limited and sell out quickly, so you might miss your chance if you’re not fast enough.
But don’t give up just yet.
There’s still another way to purchase paid viewing tickets.
That’s through “resale.”
Resale is a system that allows you to purchase tickets from people who originally won them in the lottery but can no longer attend.
Simply put, it’s a way to get “cancelled tickets.”
This system is officially operated by the organizer, the Nagaoka Fireworks Foundation, who handles the authorized resale of these tickets.
(Note: Unauthorized resale of tickets is strictly prohibited. Selling tickets for profit without the organizer’s consent is not allowed, and tickets obtained through unofficial resale cannot be used for entry. Always use the official resale system provided by the organizers. Details about resale and where to purchase tickets are available on the official website.)
First, here’s the general lottery and ticket sales schedule for the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival:
| April 10 〜 April 30 | Early Lottery for Nagaoka Residents Application via special postcard only (Distributed with April issue of municipal bulletin) |
|---|---|
| Until May 23 (Fri) | Notification of lottery results |
| May 26 (Mon) 〜 June 6 (Fri) | General Lottery Sale Online only |
| June 17 (Tue) | Notification of lottery results |
| June 30 (Mon) 〜 July 11 (Fri) | If tickets remain First - come, first - served online sale |
| From July 4 (Fri) | Official Resale Online |
The “Official Resale” listed at the end of the schedule is what we mean by resale.
| April 10 〜 April 30 | Early Lottery for Nagaoka Residents Application by postcard only |
|---|---|
| Late May onwards | Notification of lottery results |
| May 27 〜 June 7 | General Lottery Sale Online only |
| From June 17 (Mon) 18:00 | Notification of lottery results |
| June 27 (Thu) 〜 July 12 (Fri) | First - come, first - served online sale |
| July 8 (Mon) 12:00 〜 July 24 (Wed) 23:59 | Official Resale Online |
| April 10 〜 April 28 | Early Lottery for Nagaoka Residents Online or special postcard application |
|---|---|
| Until May 26 | Notification of lottery results |
| May 29 〜 June 9 | General Lottery Sale Online only |
| Until June 16 | Notification of lottery results |
| June 19 〜 June 23 | If tickets remain First - come, first - served online sale |
| June 26 〜 July 14 | Official Resale Online or by phone |
Tickets | Official Nagaoka Fireworks Website (Nagaoka Fireworks Foundation)
Like many other ticket types, resale tickets are also first-come, first-served.
However, here’s the key point: resale tickets don’t appear all at once.
Whenever someone who originally won a ticket becomes unable to attend and completes the resale process, those tickets are put up for sale.
This means resale tickets are released sporadically and unpredictably.
So, starting from the official resale launch date, you should frequently check the resale website and persistently keep searching. The more you check, the better your chances of scoring a ticket.
Here is an example of a paid viewing ticket that was actually purchased through the resale system.
Paid viewing ticket purchased through resale
The purchase was made two days after the official resale began on June 26, specifically on June 28.
As you can see, even though tickets are sold on a first-come, first-served basis, they don’t necessarily sell out instantly. If you consistently check the official resale site, your chances of securing a ticket are high.
There is one important caveat when purchasing resale tickets.
Tickets are resold in the exact quantity that was canceled.
For example, if “4 tickets in Area A South” are canceled, then the resale listing will be for exactly “4 tickets in Area A South.”
You cannot choose to buy only 2 out of the 4 tickets, for example.
You also can’t control:
These are entirely left to chance.
When purchasing a resale ticket, be sure to carefully confirm the location and number of tickets before completing your purchase.
By the way, even after I purchased my own ticket, I kept checking the resale site and noticed that tickets continued to become available throughout the entire resale period.
So don’t give up—you can definitely get a paid viewing ticket if you keep trying. (And it’s totally worth the effort—the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival is truly amazing!)
If you plan to drive to the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival, parking will be a major issue.
On the day of the event, there are no free parking lots near the venue.
Almost all available parking is paid, and to save money, your best option is to reserve a paid parking lot provided by the official organizers.
These lots usually cost between 1,000 to 4,000 yen, and many are located close to the venue. (For lots located farther away, free shuttle buses are provided.)
However, these official parking lots fill up almost instantly once reservations open.
And here’s a critical point: if you purchase your ticket through resale, you likely won’t receive the ticket in time to reserve official parking. That’s because you need a reservation code included with your ticket to book an official lot.
Because the number of visitors is so large, parking provided by the organizers simply isn’t enough.
On the day of the festival, private homes and businesses also rent out parking spots for a fee.
To reserve these spots, you can use a site officially recommended by the organizers: Nokisaki Parking.
However, parking prices on this site can be extremely high.
Near the venue, expect to pay over 20,000 yen, and around Nagaoka Station—slightly farther away—you’ll still pay 10,000 to 17,000 yen.
(For comparison, in most regional cities in Japan, the typical cost for a half-day in a coin parking lot is around 1,000 to 2,000 yen at most.)
It’s heartbreaking to finally secure your ticket only to face these sky-high parking fees.
That’s why we’ll now introduce a method to avoid this problem entirely.
Let’s now talk about how to avoid both the skyrocketing parking prices and the major issue of not being able to get home due to traffic congestion after the event.
This solution is quite specific, so it may not be the best fit depending on your seating area. It works especially well if you’re in Area A, but there may be better alternatives for Area B.
That said, you can still adapt this strategy for other areas as well.
With that in mind, here is the winning method:
Nagaoka Bunka Driving School is not located very close to the fireworks venue. Even so, we highly recommend reserving a parking spot there.
Address: 3-1-1 Zao, Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, 940-0028
Here’s the distance from Nagaoka Bunka Driving School to the fireworks venue. For example, it’s about 1.5 km to Nagaoka Bridge and approximately 3.6 km to the south side of Area A. (As explained later, this distance won’t be a problem.)
The parking fee at Nagaoka Bunka Driving School is 7,000 yen. While not cheap, it’s a bargain compared to other options that can cost over 10,000 yen.
Below is a screenshot of the e-ticket I received when I reserved a spot through Nokisaki Parking. Just show the e-ticket on your smartphone at the parking lot entrance to gain entry.
(Note: You cannot use the image in this article to enter the lot. You must make a reservation on Nokisaki Parking and obtain your own e-ticket.)
The lot has a relatively large capacity, making it one of the more reliable options for guaranteed parking. So first, reserve a secure and affordable spot by choosing this location.
This step is crucial.
Once you arrive at the driving school, call a local taxi company in Nagaoka to dispatch a taxi.
You might think there’s no way a taxi will come near the venue on the event day—but surprisingly, they do.
In my case, I called several taxi companies for about 10 minutes and successfully got one dispatched. The taxi arrived in about 5 minutes.
Even though this is one of the busiest and most crowded fireworks festivals, you can still get a taxi—as long as you don’t give up.
Below is a list of taxi companies and their phone numbers that operate in Nagaoka City. Bookmark this article so you can quickly contact them on the day of the event.
Be sure to check in advance “alternative transportation routes in case you cannot get a taxi.” The number of spectators is increasing each year, so it’s important to keep in mind that taxis might not be available. For example, from the driving school, you can walk to Kita-Nagaoka Station in about 10 minutes. Also, considering that you might have to walk if you can’t get a taxi, it’s better not to bring too much luggage. (Remember that even if you can get a taxi, you’ll still need to walk to the viewing seats.)
Also, since taxi company receptionists often cannot handle languages other than Japanese, it would be good to be able to make your request in Japanese.
Let’s break down why using a taxi is actually the smartest and most cost-effective move.
The distance from Nagaoka Bunka Driving School to the fireworks venue isn’t exactly short. (About 1.5 km to Nagaoka Bridge, and around 3.6 km to the south side of Area A.)
But in reality, you can reach the venue area for just around 1,000 to 1,200 yen, and it takes only about 5 to 8 minutes.
Compared to walking 10+ minutes in the scorching summer heat from the driving school to the nearest station (Kita-Nagaoka Station), then boarding a crowded train, and walking another 15+ minutes from Nagaoka Station under the hot sun—paying 1,000 yen for a taxi is a total win in terms of comfort and efficiency.
Plus, there are designated taxi drop-off routes that allow taxis to enter areas close to the venue.
Taxi-accessible drop-off area near the venue
In my case, the drop-off point was right near the south area of Area A, marked in the photos and map above. The fare was around 1,000–1,200 yen, so if you’re going to Area A, it should cost the same or even less.
In terms of saving time and energy, a taxi is your best option.
Don’t take the train back after the fireworks. The crowds are so massive that not only will you struggle to board, but you might not even make it into the station.
Walking from the fireworks venue to Nagaoka Bunka Driving School takes about 40 minutes. That’s a doable distance—and faster than waiting in line for the train.
That said, the walk is a bit long, so don’t plan to walk the entire way.
Instead, start walking in the direction of the driving school, and try to flag down a taxi along the way. You’d be surprised—empty taxis are still out there.
Once you catch a taxi, you’ll be back at the driving school in about 5 minutes. The fare is roughly the same as on the way there—1,000 to 1,200 yen.
I personally stayed until the very end of the fireworks and left the venue around 9:20 pm. Using this method, I made it back to the driving school by 10:00 pm.
If you can get back to the driving school quickly after the fireworks end, you can completely avoid traffic jams.
There were no delays on the roads leading to the expressway, and the highway itself was completely clear. I was able to return to the area around Niigata Station without any issues.
I got back to my hotel in Niigata City a little after 11:00 pm, and the entire return trip was incredibly smooth and stress-free.
Once the fireworks end, thousands of people begin moving all at once. Even if you manage to park close to the venue, the surrounding roads become so congested that it takes forever to get out—and you’ll end up stuck in traffic anyway.
That’s why choosing a parking spot a little farther from the venue and using a taxi for the short trip in between is the smartest move.
It’s the fastest way to get around, you avoid the chaos, and the overall cost is lower. It’s truly the ultimate strategy.
If you’re planning to return by Shinkansen from Nagaoka Station, be prepared for extreme crowding. Just getting on the train can be a serious challenge.
However, both the Tokyo-bound and Niigata-bound Shinkansen lines run additional temporary trains during the event.
Based on data from 2023, it appears that most attendees were able to board a train thanks to these increased services.
If you can handle the crowds, taking the Shinkansen is definitely a viable alternative to driving.
Hotels in Nagaoka City and Niigata City fill up very quickly.
Room rates also surge, so be sure to book early to find accommodations within your budget.
During the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival, average hotel prices range from 20,000 to 40,000 yen per night. A few places may offer rooms for around 10,000 yen, but it’s rare. Normally, budget city hotels in this region go for about 4,000 to 5,000 yen, so this is a massive price increase.
Some hotels near Niigata Station have even spiked to 10–20 times their usual rates.
Normal season hotel rates
Rates during the Nagaoka Fireworks Festival
| Hotel Name | Regular Rate | Festival Rate | Price Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juraku Stay Niigata | 3,700 yen | 35,400 yen | 9.57x |
| Art Hotel Niigata Ekimae | 4,700 yen | 42,300 yen | 9x |
| Hotel Livemax Niigata Ekimae | 4,675 yen | 100,000 yen | 21.39x |
Yes, it’s hard to get tickets. Yes, hotel reservations are difficult and expensive. Yes, parking is pricey.
And if you don’t plan your way home, you might get stuck in traffic or fail to board a train.
There are lots of challenges, and keeping costs down takes careful effort.
But overcoming all that is absolutely worth it. The Nagaoka Grand Fireworks Festival is that spectacular.
This photo was taken at 7:00 pm, during the magical twilight hour. The sky is breathtakingly beautiful.
Once the fireworks begin, you’ll witness an overwhelming display that makes Tokyo’s fireworks festivals pale in comparison.
Among all the displays, one especially recommended performance is the “Phoenix Fireworks: A Prayer for Recovery.” This massive show spans roughly 2 kilometers along the banks of the Shinano River, and is designed to evoke the image of a phoenix rising from the ashes.
Over the course of about 3 minutes, the sky is lit up with vibrant colors—red, blue, green, yellow, and more—creating a dreamlike experience.
If you don’t know what to expect, it’s natural to feel anxious. But once you understand the reality and prepare accordingly, there’s nothing to worry about.
Use the strategies we’ve shared here to build your perfect plan, avoid risks, and come witness this breathtaking spectacle for yourself.
