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“Rock suru ze! (Let’s rock!)” Summer is still two months away, but Japanese music fans are already getting psyched up for this year’s round of rock festivals, which as always offer a winning combination of great music and a fun “matsuri” party vibe.
“Matsuri,” as local community festivals are known, have long been a summertime tradition in Japan. They’re as much an excuse for people to get together and party as they are celebrations of any specific occasion. And there’s a definite matsuri atmosphere at Japan’s summer rock festivals, where you can meet old friends and make new ones, both from Japan and overseas, enjoy “ethnic” foods and check out all the arts, handicrafts, clothes and other stuff on sale.
Of course, music is the magnet drawing young Japanese in their thousands to the Fuji Rock, Summer Sonic and Rising Sun Rock festivals, which in the last few years have grown into some of the biggest music events held anywhere in the world. They enable music fans to take in a vast amount of music comprising an eclectic mix of veterans and up-and-comers over the course of a weekend.
Because of the scale of these festivals, not to mention the time, money and cooperative effort needed to put them on, the media gives them continuous coverage, starting from when each festival’s dates are announced until the post-festival aftermath, when reviews are published and festival highlights are broadcast on TV.
For artists and record labels, these events are a great opportunity to reach a mass audience in the world's second-largest music market. Performance slots are in big demand. Besides the serious business of building up a Japanese fan base, many foreign acts say they simply like visiting Japan, and they often describe Japan’s summer rock festivals as being among the most fun and best-organized in the world.
The most famous of Japan’s summer music-fests is Fuji Rock Festival. It was the first of the big summer rock festivals to be held on an annual basis, launching in 1997. There had previously been other summer music festivals in Japan, but they were generally organized with the sponsorship of various non-music-related companies, whose support couldn’t be counted on from year to year.
The camping/community aspect of the Fuji Rock Festival was largely inspired by Britain’s celebrated Glastonbury Festival. Detailed and extensive planning was required on the part of festival organizers Smash Corp. to cope with the anticipated masses of festival-goers, above all finding a camping-friendly site.
The inaugural Fuji Rock Festival was held near the town of Tenjinyama in Yamanashi Prefecture, at the base of Japan’s iconic Mt. Fuji. After getting the OK to use the site, Smash liaised with local business people to get them used to the idea of hordes of kids suddenly descending upon the area.
The first Fuji Rock had a fantastic line-up, but a typhoon on the event’s first day put a definite damper on the proceedings – during the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ evening performance, it looked as if the entire stage might be blown away. Smash decided to cancel day 2 of the festival, leaving attendees soaked and disappointed, and many artists left the festival without performing.
But Smash president Masahiko Hidaka didn’t let the typhoon debacle stop his plans to make Fuji Rock Japan’s biggest annual music event, and the second edition of the festival in 1998, held at a site beside Tokyo Bay, was a huge success.
Since 1999 the festival has been held at the Naeba ski resort in Niigata Prefecture. The community around Naeba benefits greatly from the business boom the event brings in during the resort’s off-season. Over the years, Smash has gradually fine-tuned and expanded the scope of the festival, and despite being a three-day event on a sprawling area that includes forests, creeks and five main stages, it is well-organized and operates smoothly. The fresh air of a mountain setting and sense of community help make Fuji Rock a special event.
The line-up always features a wide variety of acts, from top established names like Elvis Costello, Underworld, The White Stripes and Neil Young, to the up and coming, and includes a choice selection of Japanese artists. Events go long into the night, with the later slots often manned by some of the top club artists in the world.
Smash has a keen eye for new British bands, and Fuji Rock often features some of the U.K.’s hottest new acts. In recognition of his role in promoting British music in Japan, the British government made Hidaka a member of the Order of the British Empire in March 2004.
Fuji Rock has also played a crucial role in supporting the “jam band” movement, inviting Phish, String Cheese Incident, Galactic, Ben Harper and others to perform, often at the festival’s smaller “Field of Heaven” stage, before they became well-known.
This year’s Fuji Rock takes place July 29-31, and among the big-name overseas acts performing are Beck, Fatboy Slim, Moby, the Foo Fighters and the reunited Dinosaur Jr., while Japanese acts playing at the festival include the Boom Boom Satellites, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Sambomaster and Quruli.
Another major summer rock festival is Creativeman’s Summer Sonic, which was first held in 2000. Summer Sonic is actually two festivals -- one in Osaka and another in Tokyo, with acts playing one city and then performing in the other city the following day.
Summer Sonic’s “Tokyo” shows are actually held just outside of Tokyo proper at the Chiba Marine Stadium. The main stage is situated in a vast outdoor baseball stadium, with a series of smaller stages indoors. The line-up includes many types of music, but leans more toward American rock and alternative music than Fuji Rock.
Creativeman president Naoki Shimizu has a history of recognizing talented artists early on in their careers, including non-U.S. and U.K. acts such as Sweden’s Mando Diao, Denmark’s Junior Senior and France’s Tahiti 80. Given Creativeman’s history of spotting bands with potential, industry types make a point of checking out the “unknown” bands that perform at Summer Sonic.
Like Fuji, Summer Sonic’s line-up emphasizes foreign acts but also includes some leading Japanese artists.
Some music fans prefer Summer Sonic because it is not a camping festival, allowing them to head home at the end of the day. Summer Sonic has featured many top names in the past, including Good Charlotte, No Doubt, Weezer, The Strokes, Radiohead, and Guns n’ Roses. This year’s Summer Sonic, scheduled for Aug. 13 and 14, features Nine Inch Nails, Oasis, Duran Duran and the Black Crowes, Puffy AmiYumi and Rip Slyme.
The Rising Sun Rock Festival, which was launched in 1998 by concert-promotion company Wess, is held near Sapporo in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s four main islands. Unlike Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic, the Rising Sun event, which this year takes place Aug. 19 and 20, focuses entirely on Japanese music, especially rock and alternative acts, from both indie and major labels.
Like Fuji Rock, the Rising Sun Rock Festival is a camping-style festival and attracts music fans from far and wide. Performances take place over two days on five stages, which have trippy names like Sun Stage, Earth Tent, Red Star Field, Moon Circus and Green Oasis. This year’s line-up includes Ego-Wrappin, Zazen Boyz, Love Psychedelico (billed mysteriously as “Strange Love Psychedelico”), Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra , Nicotine, Takkyu Ishino and Rip Slyme, among many others.
With the long and rainy winter in Japan this year, it’s sometimes been hard to think ahead to the summer, but now that spring is here, the music business and music fans are getting revved up for this year’s round of summer festivals, which promise to be among the best ever.
Fuji Rock: http://smash-jpn.com
Summer Sonic: http://creativeman.co.jp
Rising Sun: http://rsr.wess.co.jp
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