Hotels for Gion Matsuri 2027

Japan's most celebrated festival, running to the same calendar for over a thousand years: the whole of July belongs to Gion Matsuri, but the heart is the two Yamaboko Junko grand processions on 17 and 24 July, when enormous wooden float-towers — some ten metres tall, hauled on wooden wheels by teams of dozens — are turned through downtown Kyoto's corners by sheer choreographed muscle.

The three yoiyama evenings before each procession close the streets to traffic and fill them with lanterns, yukata and food stalls. July in Kyoto is fiercely hot and humid; book air-conditioning and go out at dusk.