Japan International Birdman Rally 2025

If you've ever wished that you could defy gravity, birdman events might be up your alley. The Japan International Birdman Rally has been running for over four decades now, and involves participants attempting to fly, or rather glide, using homemade flying contraptions.

A temporary jetty is installed on Shiga's Lake Biwa for the event, and there are two categories for participants – the glider division and the manual propeller aircraft division. To give some idea of what to expect, last year's event saw the glider division reach a distance of 533.58m (a new event record), and the manual propeller aircraft division reach 36868.80m.

If you plan to watch the event, do note that the starting time differs each day. On Saturday July 29th the start time is 7.30am, and on Sunday July 30th kickoff is bright and early at 6am.