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2021 Shinshu Guitar Festival
High-end guitar makers in Nagano Pref. which is known as the largest manufacturing base of high-quality guitars in Japan held 2021 Shinshu Guitar Festival on November 13 and 14 at Shinmai Media Garden in Matsumoto.
With an exhibition of over 150 electric guitars and bases from 12 brands built in Nagano, the appointment-based event drew 700 visitors seeking special and original gears. More than 80% of them came from remote areas including Tokyo and Nagoya reflecting growing interest of collectors.
The visitors were able to experience and buy the instruments onsite and even order original models using precious local wood materials through talks with the builders face to face. They also enjoyed watching production processes of instruments from cutting neck, fret works to set-up procedures. Total sales for the 2 days marked 20 million yen.
Talk session on wood materials inviting Makoto Sugimoto of Sugimoto Guitars, and a surprise visit of Kazuya Yamaguchi, guitarist and supporter of the festival were streamed online.
Mikio Ohta, a key member of executive committee (Matsumoto Parco store, Shimamura Music) said, “We are pleased that we increased sales opportunities by listing all guitars on exhibit on our website earlier and had Digimart join online distribution. They were well accepted by the customer. All in all, we have solved obstacles we had last year, and it helped us improve the value of the event. “