MI Bon Summer Festival 2025

This year’s celebration of #MIBON2025 will be happening in the afternoon of Sunday, August 10th 2025 at Cranbrook Japanese Gardens in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan – Check back here for more details coming soon!

See below for highlights of our previous MI Bon Summer Festivals (2021-2024) and to learn about MI Bon Dancing.


#MIBON2024

 

Obon (お盆) / SECOND JAPANESE BON FESTIVAL AT CRANBROOK / #MIBON2024

Sunday, August 11th, 2024 | 1:00pm - 5:30pm
Cranbrook Japanese Garden
550 Lone Pine Road
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304

Featuring Great Lakes Taiko Drumming, MI Bon Dancing, Cranbrook Japanese Garden Tours, and More!

Free Admission (Advance Registration Required)

 

#MIBON2024 is a Community Project presented by the Great Lakes Taiko Center (GLTC) 五大湖太鼓センター Taiko Arts Collective and hosted by the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research at the Cranbrook Japanese Garden in Bloomfield Hills, MI.

This MI Bon Summer Festival is made possible by Great Lakes Taiko Center volunteer members and supported by grants from Taiko Community Alliance, TaikoVentures, and the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

Additional cultural activities are provided by GLTC community partners including JACL Detroit (Japanese American Citizens League) and the Consulate-General of Japan in Detroit along with botanical displays by Ikebana International Detroit (Detroit Chapter 85) and the Ann Arbor Bonsai Society.

The 2024 Cranbrook Japanese Garden Tour Season and related cultural programming is sponsored, in part, by the Clannad Foundation and the Japan Business Society of Detroit.

 
 
 
 
Michigan Bon Summer Festival shown as state of Michigan and Great Lakes and taiko drummers and dancers

MI Bon T-Shirts

for #MIBON2024

Visit our GLTC info table at the cultural booths tent to purchase our MI Bon T-shirts (Adult sizes $25, Youth sizes $20)


MI Bon Dancing!

photo of dancers in a grassy field wearing festive Japanese clothing

Bon dancers and drummers at our first GLTC community MI Bon Summer Festival in 2021, Novi, MI #MIBON2021

Watch our MI Bon Dance & Tutorial videos and learn more about each song and dance that we will be featuring at this year’s MI Bon Summer Festival on our MI Bon Dance page:


 

#MIBON2021

 
 
 

Japanese Taiko drums in the field at #MIBON2021 [photo: Eileen S. Ho, 2021-08-07 at Wildlife Woods Park, Novi, MI]

 
 

#MIBON2022

MI Bon logo (2022) created by Michigan artist Deanne Bednar with GLTC member Ronna Fisher.

Festival audience learning Bon dance movements and gestures for the song Michigan Ondo at #MIBON2022 [photo: Noriko Maidens/Emi, 2022-09-24 at Novi Public Library]

Our T3/BBK Team: Kyoko Johnson, Noriko Maidens, Rieko Muroi-Bowman, and Akiyo Fisher, sensei for the Tanoishii Taiko Tai (T3) community group and Bondaiko-Bondance-Kane (BBK) festival music class, also performing as Murasaki Shikibu Ensemble [photo: Kyoko Johnson, 2022-09-24, Novi Public Library #MIBON2022]


#MIBON2023

MI Bon 2023 (pre-event) Dance Workshop participants dancing to Tokyo Ondo, one of the Bon dances featured at GLTC #MIBON2023 (video: July 23rd 2023 at Rudolf Steiner HS, Ann Arbor, MI)


donations welcome!