Looking for information on Nachi-no-Hi Matsuri 14 july

Question

I am looking for information regarding this Matsuri.
I takes place in Nachisan, Nachi-Katsuura-cho, Wakayama Prefecture
I am only 20mn far from this Matsuri on July the 14th.
More info :

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBobXgjkmhw
• http://www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/nachi-no-hi-matsuri-fire-festival-in-japan-staged-in-the-kumano-mountains/

My question are :

• At what time should I go to see the Matsuri ?
• Is it easy to park (I have a car)
• Is it crowded ? (it should)

Answer 1

Summary:

• Go there early. If you can, take the first possible train.
• Do not take a car. Take public transport. It will not be easy to park.
• Yes it's crowded. Not so much that you won't see the procession, but the spots famous for the good photos will be very crowded.

Details:

There are two parking spaces in the village, one directly in front of the temple and one a bit further away, you can see both on Google Maps. The city explicitly asks people to use public transport for visiting the festival. The options are:

• By Taxi about 20 minutes from JR Kii-Katsuura Station to the town
• By Bus about 30 minutes from JR Kii-Katsuura Station to the town

The festival starts officially at 10:00 and ends at 15:30.

If you look at the images on Google, you can see that there are many people but not too many to see something. Since the festival is a procession on the mountain path, there seem to be many locations where you can stand above the road on the slope and observe it while it is moving past. It will be more difficult to find a front-line location on the most interesting spots. There are several different videos on youtube that give you a bit better impression about how many people visit the festival.