Super Diversity! Introducing the project to recognize and enjoy every kind of individuality, including disabilities, gender, and nationality!

Hi-Sai! My name is Takara, I’m from Okinawa and I’m in my third year at SUNNY SIDE UP!

This time, I’d like to introduce the “most diverse project” that SUNNY SIDE UP has been working on, the “True Colors Festival – Super Diversity Art Festival”!

■What is the “True Colors Festival – Super Diversity Art Festival”?

Suddenly, what do you think is your own “individuality”? From inner and outer characteristics to where you come from and the languages you speak, there are many different aspects of your individuality”.

Diversity is a state in which people with various personalities and attributes come together. Recently, companies and local governments have been talking about their efforts to promote diversity.

The Nippon Foundation’s “True Colors Festival – Super Diversity Art Festival -” is a project to recognize and enjoy such “individuality” together!

The festival has celebrities such as Ryucheru and Hirotada Ototake as ambassadors, as well as an advisory panel of experts in various fields to provide advice on various initiatives, including Fumino Sugiyama, co-chairperson of Tokyo Rainbow Pride, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities.

True Colors Festival is an arts festival where people with all kinds of “individuality” such as disabilities, gender, age, nationality, etc. can come together and have fun.

SUNNY SIDE UP has been in charge of PR since the project’s launch in 2019, and has supported the development of various events through performing arts such as dance, musicals, and theater.

*For more information on PR activities, please click below.
PR activity results of “True Colors Festival – Super Diversity Arts Festival -“

World-class dance group ‘ILL-Abilities’ visited Japan for “True Colors DANCE” in 2019

Artist ‘komuai’ also participated in “True Colors BEATS,” an improvised musical performance

The event was originally scheduled for 2020, but was canceled due to the COVID-19, and was officially rescheduled for 2021. Various diversity-rich performances have been held. Among them, these two performances were the most exciting!

■True Colors CIRCUS,” the first performance by Japan’s first social circus company

This is a social circus in which people with and without disabilities perform on the same stage.

The event was originally scheduled to be held in 2020, but was unavoidably rescheduled to this year due to the COVID-19.

This year, however, a state of emergency was declared, making it difficult to include an audience…

On the bright side, a media interview session was still held as scheduled, and the performance was decided to be streamed online at a later date, and it was successfully shown on June 1 on the official YouTube channel!

The performance took place over two years. At the end of the performance, everyone stood on stage and danced (photo by Ryohei Tomita, courtesy of the Nippon Foundation DIVERSITY IN THE ARTS).

The key point of this circus is that not only performers with and without disabilities, but also “acampanists” who serve as accompanists for the performance, “access coordinators” who support the performers, and other people in various roles are involved in creating the work.

SUNNY SIDE UP used all the strengths surrounding this work to promote the media from various angles.

Our efforts were then introduced in many media outlets, including NTV’s “news zero” and TV Asahi’s “Tokyo Cheering Declaration.”

Performers with disabilities and supporters performing together (Photo by Ryohei Tomita, courtesy of the Nippon Foundation DIVERSITY IN THE ARTS)

■ “True Colors FASHION,” a diversity fashion show directed by Yoichi Ochiai

On May 30, “True Colors FASHION: Releasing Physical Diversity into the Future Diversity Fashion Show” (https://youtu.be/sUbd9PLzfRI) was delivered online.

This was a diverse online fashion show with media artist Yoichi Ochiai as the overall director.

A diverse range of people, including people without arms or limbs, people who use wheelchairs, people without disabilities, children, and the elderly, modeled for the show, which teamed up with renowned brands such as ANREALAGE and KANSAI YAMAMOTO, and manufacturers that support diverse bodies through technology, such as Xiborg and WHILL.

True Colors Ambassador, Mr. Hirotada Ototake, wore a prosthetic leg while dressed in a kimono.

GenGen, a dancer with hearing loss, wore a jacket that vibrates music and visually amplifies the trajectory of his dance.

Fashion is familiar to everyone. However, while some people enjoy fashion to the fullest, others are unable to enjoy fashion that suits them due to physical characteristics such as disability or gender.

This fashion show proposes fashion that allows everyone to make the most of their individuality, and fashion that uses technology to “enhance the individuality” of each body.

■ Not an inspirational success story, but show just the way it is!

I personally have been in charge of this art festival since its launch in 2019. What I have learned most from working on this project is how to bridge the gap between the story and direction that the media wants to portray and the real people involved.

In the media you usually see, don’t you see a lot of success stories? For example, stories with a main character who fails at first, struggles, and becomes able to do something he or she could not do before.

Of course, I do not intend to deny the success story itself. I myself, when I didn’t know much about them, thought that success stories were the most wonderful and inspiring to people.

However, by facing this art festival, I came to realize that there are so many people with various personalities in the world, and we should not assume that there are things we can’t do. 

(Photo by Ryohei Tomita, courtesy of the Nippon Foundation DIVERSITY IN THE ARTS)

What comes after that is to convey one’s thoughts and feelings to the media in one’s own words.

I enjoyed the process of conveying to the media in my own words the message that the festival wanted to convey and the thoughts and feelings of the people involved, and learning together with the media.

■True Colors Festival is for everyone!

The “True Colors Festival” is an opportunity to enjoy the festival together with people with a wide variety of personalities, including those with disabilities, gender, generation, language, nationality, and more.

Each event can be enjoyed on the official YouTube channel with audio guidance, Japanese-English subtitles, and other viewing support.

We hope you will enjoy the events in the comfort of your own home.

Official Website: https://truecolorsfestival.com/
Official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TrueColorsFestival