Himeji Fighting Festival

This is a little dated now, but when Dad was out in October we went to Himeji (about an hour and a half away) to check out their fighting festival. Apparently all the action happens on Sunday, but it was still pretty interesting when we were there on the Saturday.
I think Saturday is basically for everyone to just have a good time and show off their floats (second picture) and mikoshis (third picture).
In the first picture you can see a kid on his Dad's shoulders watching one of the floats go by. He had a really cool dragon on the back of his yukata (robe). He's wearing what is called a fundoshi I think (pretty much a fancy diaper), that is also worn by most of the men participating in the festival.
While I was there, I was standing in front of one of the floats taking some pictures when 2 guys from opposing groups started jostling and then screaming at each other. It looked like they were ready to kill each other. Fortunately, their buddies pulled them off each other and separated them. It was really surprising though, because it is extremely rare for Japanese people to show negative feelings in public.