I’m deep in the mountains of Japan at the moment, attending what is easily the best musical event of the year, if not in the world then at least in Asia. Over one-hundred-thousand music fans have descended on the Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture for three days of live music, revelry and sun.
The scale of the thing is remarkable, with performances and shows happening on five main stages and countles others, all scattered across a winding, narrow valley of verdant green with a river of cool mountain water running right through the middle.
I’m here to report on the event for promoter SMASH, covering shows and producing content for the FujiRockers web site. Now it’s day three, and I’ve seen a wide array of bands and musicians, including: Shibusa Shirazu Orchestra, the String Cheese Incident, Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers, Manu Chao and the Radio Bemba Sound System, DJ Shadow, DJ Kensei, the Cinematic Orchestra, Inoue Yousui, American Hi-Fi (they sucked ass, by the way), and the Electric Soft Parade. It’s musical Nirvana here.
There are a million things to see and do. As part of my job here is to meet and interview people I end up talking to a lot of folks. The foreigners I spoke to all had the same goods things to say about the event: they can’t believe how a.) clean, b.) safe (non-threatening) and c.) well-produced the entire affair is. After attending similer festivals like Glostonbury, the lack of garbage strewn about and drunken mayhem is a welcome surprise and easily the best thing about The Fest. Having seen it all up close and personal for three days now, I’m inclined to agree.
More later…