When is the next Ebisu Drift Matsuri and when do entries open?

The next Ebisu Drift Matsuri is the Autumn round at Ebisu Circuit (Fukushima) on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November 2026, the last of 2026; Spring (9–10 May) and Summer (22–23 August) are done. The date that decides your trip comes a month earlier: the advance application window opens at 00:00 JST on Sunday 11 October and closes on Friday 23 October 2026. Inside it, driving both days costs ¥20,000 without a pit or ¥22,000 to ¥30,000 with one; miss it and you can still drive for ¥25,000 on the day but cannot book a pit, because pits are sold only online during that window. Everything here was read off Ebisu’s own pages on 9 September 2026 for our matsuri dates and deadlines page.

The practical points, in order:

• Convert the opening time now. 00:00 JST on Sunday 11 October is 15:00 UTC on Saturday 10 October: in the Americas that is still Saturday. Ebisu gives no closing hour, so treat 23 October as the last day in Japan time.
• A pit means the Japanese system. Ebisu publishes an English rulebook and application form, but the online entry system (MS-Event) is Japanese, and a faxed or posted entry cannot reserve a pit. The English form also prints the summer and autumn windows swapped; trust the web page.
• No refunds. Once you have applied, neither entry nor pit can be cancelled or refunded, so settle flights before 11 October.
• Spectators need nothing in advance. Admission was ¥2,500 for adults and ¥1,200 for children at the spring and summer rounds, valid all weekend, and Ebisu states in writing that the autumn figure may change. Passenger insurance is a compulsory ¥500, and the circuit asks spectators to stop approaching entrants for rides.
• Sunday only: ¥20,000 entering from 6:00, ¥15,000 from 12:00.

You need a car, a helmet and a normal driving licence; no motorsport licence is required. Our first-timer’s guide to the matsuri covers what happens on the mountain: every course open, including Higashi and Nishi, normally reserved for competitions, and trains of cars on Kita course on Saturday night. The bus timetable from Nihonmatsu Station appears about a week before the event.

As for 2027, no matsuri page or calendar PDF exists yet; the 2026 page went up on 1 February 2026, so start checking early in the new year. We do not publish predicted dates.

If the Japanese entry screen is what stands between you and the November weekend, we can run the entry with you inside the window, choose the pit class and line it up against your flights: have us handle the matsuri entry and the timing at Ebisu.