Niigata-based Gugenka, which plans and produces XR content including anime titles, organized the official Hatsune Miku Yozora Program 2026, with the Niigata Nippo Media Ship as its main venue. The event opened with the Special AR Music Fireworks, a one-night show on 21 September 2026 that layered an AR performance by virtual singer Hatsune Miku over real music fireworks launched into the night sky. Gugenka's post-event report says the host event, which ran from 21 to 23 September, drew about 7,100 visitors across all of its strands.
How the AR show worked
The event page set the fireworks for about 19:00 at the Shinano River Yasuragi Tei green space in Niigata. Visitors watched through the smartphone app Holo Model, Gugenka's line of official digital anime figures, as Miku danced in the night sky to the theme song "Bloom Out", timed to the fireworks. The event page said a paid advance ticket was required.
A first-come special session used optical see-through AR glasses from XREAL, which co-ran the session with Gugenka. The event page listed XREAL One and XREAL One Pro glasses paired with XREAL Beam Pro devices. Through the glasses, a life-size Miku appeared alongside the real fireworks in the same field of view. Each pair of glasses recognised the venue's live music on its own to time the AR effects.
Scale and response
- XREAL reports that about 200 glasses ran at the same time in the special session. Gugenka describes this as a world first, citing an XREAL survey as of 1 October 2026.
- XREAL says places and equipment were limited on the day, so some people who wanted to take part could not be accommodated.
- XREAL describes the large-scale simultaneous sync as a success and says it will use the feedback to expand the system and create more experience opportunities.
- XREAL's head of product strategy and ecosystem, Gao Tianfu, said he was glad to have shaped, with Gugenka, an experience in which Miku's figure overlaps the fireworks sky for the fans gathered together.
