When event organizer Smash first approached residents around the Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture about hosting the Fuji Rock Festival in 1999, they had reservations.
“The residents and farmers were nervous. They wanted to know if the noise would affect the birds… and where exactly the orchestra would be playing,” says Smash promoter and international booker Johnnie Moylett. “But after that first festival, they reported that the Fuji Rock crowd was better behaved than the winter sports community.”
The music festival has been taking place in Naeba ever since and this year’s edition, held from July 26 to 28, marks the 25th anniversary of Fuji Rock’s Niigata debut. Just as older Japanese associate summer with Bon dancing and fireworks, there is a whole new generation for whom summer means a weekend of camping with the Foo Fighters, Bjork or Franz Ferdinand as the soundtrack.
