Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture will be transformed into a musical amusement park for three days from Oct. 11 during the third staging of the Sendai Classical Music Festival.
The festival is commonly known by the abbreviation Sen-Cla (pronounced sen-ku-ra). The "Sen" part refers to the city of Sendai, of course, but it also means 1,000, as in "sen en" (¥1,000).
"The price per concert is uniformly ¥1,000," says Yo Hirai, the festival's producer since Sendai City started the event in 2006. "The concept of Sen-Cla is based on the tastes of ordinary people, among whom classical-music fans are considered to represent only around 1 per cent," says Hirai.