Hyper Japan was this last weekend and I was able to score a last minute ticket for the Friday. The festival is to celebrate Japanese culture including food, activities, and of course, anime and manga.

The event ran from around 10am in the morning to 8pm at night. I arrived around midday and it's not as busy as other conventions that focus on geeky fandoms or culture. Rarely did I have to line up or queue to get in.
However I do think that the cultural aspect is quite overstated. The bottom floor of the festival was dedicated to food but there wasn't a lot of food stalls selling food at the event. There was a few stalls from Japanese brands giving out samples but not as much as you'd think. I felt that the main event was upstairs with the artists alley where it is typical convention independent artists selling their goods and fan art. It is what I enjoy most about conventions but it is somewhat of a let down that the majority of the event was this.

Personally I don't think you would need a three day pass for this or even to spend the whole day here. We stayed til around 5-6pm after arriving at 1pm and that's including resting for an hour to eat. For around £30 a ticket I think it was worth it to escape the London heat wave and take some pictures of cosplay and eat various snacks including an incredibly delicious sparkling sake.

Did anyone on JA go to this event? Or even know about this?