Interview: Frank Chickens on Ura Matsuri Oxford
We caught up with cult heroes Frank Chickens’ Ura Matsuri collective, to talk about their next event coming up in Oxford this October.
Londoners: it’s worth making the trip for this bonkers and brilliant celebration of ESEA (East and Southeast Asian) culture.
Ura Matsuri | Old Fire Station, Oxford | 4 October 2026 | 7:30pm | £10
Tell us about Ura Matsuri Oxford edition? What should audiences expect?
Expect an upturned toybox of creative joy, music, humour and unusual entertainment!
Our Ura Matsuri mascot Japan-A-Gran will lead you on a journey of cheeky, quirky and maybe thought provoking live performance, music and benshi performance by East Asian artists based in the UK.
Tell us about the people who make up the event? How did it start?
Ura means flipside and Matsuri means festival in Japanese. Ura Matsuri started in 2016 after noticing the Japanese culture celebrated in the UK focused mostly on mainstream performance brought over from Japan, whilst the arts which were born from Japanese artists living in the UK, were under represented. A lively discussion amongst three members of Frank Chickens in a classic British pub led from one thing to another & Ura Matsuri was conceived! Ura Matsuri Collective was then formed by six members of Frank Chickens and a London event promoter and we started organising!
To give a little context, Frank Chickens are a long running & legendary Japanese punk pop performance group founded by Kazuko Hohki and Kazumi Taguchi way back in 1982. They were favourites of John Peel the Radio One DJ, toured nationally with Billy Bragg, played Glastonbury & Womad and just kept going ….and growing! After starting as a duo Frank Chickens has multiplied and expanded to become currently around 20 members strong! With both original members still performing as part of the flock to this day. Kazuko, one half of the original duo, has described the Chickens as “a collection of the most talented misfits from Japan, (and the UK)…”
All the members of Ura Matsuri Collective are artists with different disciplines and skills including musician, actress, performance artist, origami expert, lighting designer, storyteller. We are passionate about promoting works merged from immigrant culture and we especially like experimental, joyful, inclusive and fun works.
The first Ura Matsuri was at the legendary London home of live experimentation Cafe Oto. We had a day event with arts workshops for children and adults led by cosmic creature based on Japanese mythology and soundtracked by experimental soundscapes! Alongside ninja dance workshops and film screenings. This moved into a sold out & sweaty evening of music & experimentation featuring pop punk, Enka & experimental electronica.
That first edition of Ura Matsuri featured a fully Japanese line up but since then we have invited artists from other communities of ESEA (East and South East Asian) to perform & join us.
10 years on and Ura Matsuri is an annual event in London appearing at venues such as the Southbank Centre, Hoxton Hall and Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. We even created & curated a fantastic online Ura Matsuri during the lockdown.
This year we toured the event to Leeds and now we are looking forward to bringing Ura Matsuri to Oxford this week.
Who or what are your inspirations for celebrating Japanese culture around the UK?
Having the Frank Chickens community has been such a wonderful thing for me (Kazuko) personally and hopefully other chickens too. Expanding that to other Japanese artists and ESEA community will give us more joy and strength. After all we are still marginal communities and connecting to each other is a great asset.
What are you looking forward to doing or seeing when in Oxford?
Well a group punt along the river with all 20 or so performers from Oxford Ura Matsuri & Frank Chickens would be fun, but I think time & budget might limit us to a riverside lunch by the water on this trip.
We’re mostly looking forward to meeting the Oxford audience and sharing what we do and having some creative fun! Maybe we will get a chance go pop into Pitt Rivers on the way home!
Don’t miss Ura Matsuri on 4th October at the Old Fire Station, Oxford.
See line ups on the Ura Matsuri website: http://www.uramatsuri.com
Tickets from Old Fire Station website: https://oldfirestation.org.uk/whats-on/ura-matsuri/
I am Joint Editor at To Do List. I like free, cheap & offbeat London, especially: cabaret, art, theatre, pop-ups, eating out, quirky films, museums, day trips, social enterprise & much more.
