Halloween // Festival Yōkai Matsuri - Le Grand Rituel Final

Inspired by matsuri, the popular Japanese festivals, and the fascinating world of yōkai — spirits and creatures of Japanese folklore —, the festival blends ancestral traditions, contemporary creation and alternative scenes in a grand collective, festive and offbeat celebration.

On Saturday, October 31st, Halloween night, the passage between worlds opens and the border between the visible and the invisible disappears.

Unleash the yōkai that sleeps within you!

Costumes, masks and creatures invade La Petite Halle for a celebration orchestrated by Maïa Barouh, founder of the festival, who imagines Yōkai Matsuri as a meeting space between Japanese traditions, contemporary creation and celebration.

From 11am, access is free to wander among Japanese stalls, workshops, creations, performances and appearances of yōkai, and begin your metamorphosis before the evening festivities.

At 6:30 p.m., the grand yōkai costume competition will take place: fantastic creatures, monsters, spirits, supernatural animals or completely free inventions… The most inspired yōkai will be rewarded and can win tickets for the evening and other surprises.

At 8 p.m., the grand parade of yōkai will begin, led by Vespa Cougourdon Ourchestra, an astonishing brass band with instruments crafted from gourds. Alongside them will appear the Nekomata, dancers and creatures on the border between feline and spectral.

The night will continue with Flor Mata, a resolutely queer figure with flamboyant theatricality, who mixes hybrid pop and electronic music in a strange and cinematic universe.

The wonderful drag queens Satō Madjo and Brocco Lee Cockine will also join the ritual for performances celebrating metamorphosis, freedom and playing with appearances.

DJ Mask will accompany the passage between worlds with his selections mixing Japanese gems, electro and dance rhythms, to take humans and spirits on a journey until the end of the night.

Costumes are strongly encouraged.

For Halloween, unleash your inner yōkai!

Here, monsters don't scare you... they liberate you!

PROGRAM & ARTISTS

🎭 Unleash the yōkai within!

On October 31st, the public becomes a full participant in the festival. Everyone is invited to come in costume, masked or transformed, to invent their own creature and to take part in the grand parade of yōkai.

MAÏA BAROUH

An artist who bridges France and Japan, traditions and underground cultures, Maïa Barouh draws on ancestral Japanese songs and folklore to confront them with rap, jazz, electro and contemporary music.

Singer, flautist, author and composer, she makes her voice and flute converse in a unique universe, between groove, trance, poetry and raw energy.

Originally the founder of Yōkai Matsuri, she will be the mistress of ceremonies for this Grand Final Ritual: appearing throughout the happenings, she will guide the public between performances, rituals and metamorphoses, like a living passage between worlds.

VESPA COUGOURDON OURCHESTRA

A unique brass band whose instruments are entirely fashioned from gourds, reviving the spirit of the old Occitan carnival orchestras.

Eleven musicians, a unique set of instruments and trance music nourished by the Occitan carnival, Kinshasa, New Orleans and the Mediterranean.

Raw energy, intoxicating rhythms and joyful chaos: Vespa Cougourdon Ourchestra will lead the grand procession and draw humans and yōkai into the aisles of La Petite Halle.

FLOR MATA

FLOR MATA is a velvety voice nestled within a blend of hybrid pop and electronic music. A decidedly queer figure, her theatricality seems straight out of a Fellini film, while her music navigates between the strange pop of Björk and the textured electro of James Blake.

A cinematic universe tinged with nostalgia and delightful vertigo.

THE NEKOMATA

Inspired by the famous Japanese yōkai-cat, Nekomata are dancers and ritual creatures on the border between feline and spectral.

Mysterious and elusive, they will appear throughout the festival to accompany the parade, inhabit the spaces and draw the public into a world where the boundary between humans, animals and spirits blurs.

SATŌ MADJO

Sweet and wicked, Satō Madjo has been gracing the drag scene since 2019, from Paris to Tokyo. Between great divas of French song and international pop hits, she unfolds an offbeat universe driven by meticulously choreographed routines and a magnetic presence.

Perched on her high heels, she comes to enchant the ritual with humor, glamour and extravagance.

BROCCO LEE COCKINE

Brocco Lee Cockine is a vibrant, fresh, sparkly, and green drag queen… like broccoli. But sometimes also vintage, strange, and deliciously rotten, like a forgotten pickle at the back of the fridge.

A Japanese drag queen based in Bordeaux, she cultivates a crazy and international energy, between offbeat performances, humor and an acknowledged taste for the unpredictable.

DJ MASK

DJ and co-founder of the 180g label, which works to highlight the Japanese music scene of yesterday and today, DJ Mask takes us on a musical journey to the land of the Rising Sun.

Through jazz, wamono (Japanese groove), afrobeat, cumbia and other unexpected gems, his selections reveal the full richness of a thriving Japanese scene.

A borderless, curious and generous DJ set, perfectly tailored to keep the yōkai dancing until the end of the night.

👹 THE GREAT YŌKAI COSTUME CONTEST

Fantastic creatures, monsters, spirits, supernatural animals or completely free inventions: the public is invited to imagine their own yōkai.

Join us at 6:30 PM for the grand costume contest: the most inspired yōkai will be rewarded and can win tickets for the evening and other surprises.