Curry EXPO Returns to Expo ’70 Park

Curry EXPO returns to Expo ’70 Commemorative Park this April for its 13th edition, spreading across two weekends April 11 & 12, then again on the 18th and 19th.  Curry Expo turns the park’s Festival Plaza into one of Kansai’s most appealing spring food destinations. The event brings together Osaka-born spice curry alongside Indian, European, and soup curry styles, giving visitors a broad view of how wide the curry category has become in Japan. Both the official event site and the park describe it as one of western Japan’s largest curry events. 

This year’s park edition features 24 curry vendors, plus 6 sweets vendors, with additional spice and retort-curry sales on site. That mix turns the festival into an afternoon of comparison, wandering, and deciding whether to go classic, regional, meat-heavy, or fully spice-forward.  

The format is built for sampling. All curry roux is served in half-size portions, and the official pricing system is simple: two half-size curries plus rice for ¥1,400, a single half-size curry for ¥600, and rice on its own for ¥350. Toppings are sold separately by each vendor, and quantities are limited each day, so some dishes will sell out. For anyone trying to maximize variety, that half-portion setup is the right move — it encourages actual food festival behavior rather than committing to one full plate too early. 

What helps the event feel fuller is everything around the curry itself. There will be a bungee attraction for children, while the Curry EXPO also features stage programming and sweets as simultaneous content. The stage lineups include a steady run of idol groups, performers, and jump-rope stage acts spread across the day, which gives the festival a more active, fair-like rhythm rather than a static vendor row. 

And the setting matters. Expo ’70 Park already works well in spring, with broad lawns, easy walking space, and a pace that feels looser than city-center food events. Curry EXPO benefits from that openness. You can eat, walk, reset, and come back for another round without the cramped feeling that hits many urban food festivals by midday. The event is held at Festival Plaza (お祭り広場) inside the park’s Natural and Cultural Gardens, so it also folds naturally into a larger spring outing around the grounds. 

For Osaka readers, this is the kind of weekend event that earns the trip. It is easy to understand, genuinely social, and flexible enough to suit different kinds of visitors — families, food-focused day trippers, couples, or anyone who just wants to spend a spring afternoon outside with something better than standard park food. Curry EXPO has enough scale to feel like an event and enough variety to reward people who arrive hungry and stay curious. 

 Twenty-four curry shops in one place – The 2026 Expo ’70 Park edition brings together 24 curry vendors spanning Osaka spice curry, Indian curry, European curry, and soup curry styles. 

 Half-size portions make sampling easy – Festival servings are standardized as half-size curry portions, with a two-curry-and-rice set designed specifically for tasting across multiple shops. 

 Sweets and spice shopping round it out – Six sweets vendors join the lineup, and the official site also lists spice and retort-curry sales. 

 More than just food stalls – The official event includes stage programming throughout the day, plus a children’s bungee attraction confirmed by the park. 

 A spring festival setting that actually works – Festival Plaza inside Expo ’70 Park gives the event more room to breathe than most city-center food fairs. 

Photos: Curry Expo website