Fuji Rock: HIghlights

The Japanese audience love music and love to party, and they love to do it in a safe, clean and inclusive manner. That is part of what makes the Fuji Rock festival special. Final highlight was the wet but wonderful Belle & Sebastian show at the white stage.

Fuji Rock: All Night

The Palace of Wonder area is a bizarre place near the festival entrance where you can have some all-night fun. Dance, play, have some cocktails and watch the Human Cannonball and Wheels of Death. Check out some up-and-coming bands on the Rookie A Go-Go stage. I suppose no festival is complete without its own circus sideshow.

Fuji Rock: Bugs

"Tents, Bugs and Rock & Roll is the apropos name chosen for a British produced video chronicle of the 1st 10 years of the Fuji Rock festival, and as you can see insects do join in the festivities. These fellows, as well as most other insects are fine but be aware of the vampire variety, as they grow big and hungry in these woods - bug repellent is a must. Here is a list of other helpful and necessary items if you choose to attend in the future.

• Hat, to avoid sunburn, heat, and rain.
• Raincoat, a proper one for camping & hiking, as no umbrellas are allowed in the festival site and the really cheep ones will just get soaked through.
• Towel, to put around your neck to protect against the sun and or as shade, to dry, cool, or clean.
• Tarp or bag for sitting on, many bring foldable chairs.
• Sunscreen, I saw enough lobster-red colored folks after day-three to convince me that this is a must bring, consequently they were all foreigners.

Fuji Rock: Fashion

The weather in Naeba is cooler then most of Japan at this time of year, which offers a welcome change for the heat scorched masses. However, the days can still be rather hot and sunny, when it is not raining and it will rain, guaranteed. Oh and with the rain comes mud and lots of it. So for most festival goers, there is standard uniform of rubber boots, t-shirt, rain jacket, fisherman’s hat, side bag for tarps, bug repellent, sun screen, and other essentials, and almost always a towel (towels are a really big deal in Japan at this time of year). Most go this route, however some dress to impress, or dress like complete freaks - see gold suited-flag waving guy a few posts back to see what I mean. This is the green stage manned at this time by the Boom Boom Satellites who put on an epic show.

Fuji Rock: Landscape & Gonchan

As I mentioned in the previous post, some stages are quite spread apart, connected by paths such as you see here. The hub of the site is called Oasis where more than 30 food stalls from around the world gather. The main site closes each night after the final act, but Oasis continues to stay open until late at night, as well as the Red Marquee where an all-night dance party continues until 5am. The fellows seated near the river, gazing out from between the Buddhist prayer flags are named Gon-chan and apparently they migrate to Fuji Rock every year.

Fuji Rock: Stages

The Fuji Rock Festival has seven main stages and other minor stages scattered throughout the site. The Green stage is the main stage and it has a capacity for almost 50,000 spectators (shown bottom). Other stages include the White Stage (shown 2nd), the Red Marquee (shown 3rd w/ Codine Velvet Club), Orange Court, and Field of Heaven (shown top). The walks between some of the stages can be long, and some of the trails can be hilly, but the walks are beautiful, often taking you through forests and over sparkling streams.

Fuji Rock: Travel & Crowds

Naeba is accessible by the Joetsu Shinkansen (bullet train) for Tokyo station if you have that kinda cash, but if you are like me and the wallet is thin, then the Seishun Juhachi Kippu might be just the, uh. . . ticket. Literally a youth 18 ticket, but one that has no actual age restrictions on its use. It is perhaps the most interesting and certainly the best value way to travel on Japan's extensive rail network. For 11,500 yen (about 120 USD) you get a ticket entitling you to 5 days of unlimited travel on all Japan Rail services including night trains but excluding limited express and Shinkansen services. That's five separate 24-hour periods of travel on all local trains throughout Japan no booking required. Also the ticket is not tied to a specific person, so on one ticket, one person can travel for five days, or 5 people can travel for 1 day, anyway you want to do the math. Now the downside, this is not the way to travel quickly. Scenic and adventurous yes, fast no; it took over 10 hours to get from Kōbe to the campsite in Naeba.

The crowds at the concert were friendly, international, and colorful and the fresh cooler air and vast forest backdrops of the Japanese alps helped to keep spirits light. There was some crazy, you know the concert going kind, see if you can spy any?

Fuji Rock: Camping

Although Naeba, being a ski resort, offers a number of accommodation options such as hotels and ryokan within walking distance of the festival site, the cost is very high and the competition for these is fierce - and they tend to book out very quickly. Some festival goers find accommodation in nearby ski resorts, taking advantage of the free shuttle bus that links the town of Yuzawa, which has the nearest train station and is between 40 minutes to an hour each way, to the festival site. Alternatively, there is a campsite on a golf course next to the festival site which costs 3000 yen per person for the whole weekend, complete with toilets, showers, an onsen, and food stalls. The campsite is hilly in many places and flat spots are taken quickly, causing many such as myself to spend more then a few sleepless hours trying to keep myself from sliding down the hill. The last image shows my humble weekend fortress, some people really went all-out: setting up multiple tents and connecting them with tarps, and setting up chairs, futons, tables, and stoves. Oh, and some choose to sleep in their cars in the parking lot, a good option if your auto has the space.

Fuji Rock Festival 2010

Last weekend I had the absolute pleasure of attending the Fuji Rock Festival, which is an annual rock festival held in Naeba Ski Resort, in Niigata Prefecture. The 3 day event, features a large number of bands composed of both Japanese and international musicians as well as some other types of entertainment. Fuji Rock is the largest outdoor music event in Japan and its name derives from the first event, held in 1997, at the foot of Mount Fuji. However, its current home in Naeba is nowhere near Mt Fuji. More photographs and insights to follow in the coming days. . .