Fuji Rock Festival
Fuji Rock Festival is an annual rock festival held in Naeba Ski Resort, in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. The three-day event, organized by Smash Japan, features more than 200 Japanese and international musicians, making it the largest outdoor music event in Japan. In 2005, more than 100,000 people attended the festival.
Fuji Rock Festival is named so because the first event in 1997 was held at the base of Mount Fuji. Since 1999 the festival has been held at the Naeba Ski Resort in Yuzawa, Niigata.
Festival grounds
There are 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. Other stages include the White Stage, the Red Marquee, Orange Court, and Field of Heaven. 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. Dragondola – the longest gondola lift in the world, carries festival goers up to the top of the mountain overlooking the festival site.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 rave continues until 5am. The site re-opens at 9am.
The night before the festival features an opening party which is free entry, featuring bon-odori, prize draws, food stalls and a fireworks display.
The festival's stated aim is to be "The cleanest festival in the world"; great effort is also put into recycling.
Accommodation
Although Naeba, being a ski resort, offers a number of accommodation options such as hotels, ryokan and minshuku within walking distance of the festival site, competition for these is fierce and they tend to book out very quickly. Many festival goers find accommodation in nearby ski resorts such as Tashiro, Asagai and Mitsumata – the free shuttle bus linking JR Echigo-Yuzawa Station in the town of Yuzawa to the festival site can be used for these areas which are en route. Some even find accommodation in the numerous options available in Yuzawa itself. The shuttle bus takes between 40 minutes to an hour each way and runs until 2am each night.Alternatively, there is a campsite on a golf course next to the festival site which costs for the weekend, complete with toilets, showers and food stalls. About 17,000 festival goers choose to spend their nights here every year. The campsite is hilly in many places and flat spots are taken quickly, however, the manicured putting greens, which are the flattest areas are generally out of bounds to campers.
In previous years many took the option of sleeping rough – a relatively common practise amongst young Japanese during the warmer months thanks to a low crime rate – in the vicinity of the site and Echigo-Yuzawa Station, however this is now prohibited.
Access
The festival is a free 40–60-minute shuttle bus ride from Echigo-Yuzawa Station in the town of Yuzawa, on the Jōetsu Shinkansen line which link it to Tokyo Station in about 90 minutes. JR Shinkansen ticket, Tokyo to Echigo-Yuzawa is one way. Car parking also available for per day at the festival site area.History
The first year of the festival, held on Tenjinyama Ski Resort near Mt Fuji, was a disaster. It was scheduled to be a two-day event, but by sheer bad luck the first day of the event was struck by a typhoon. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' headline set, played through a storm despite Anthony Kiedis having a broken arm, is almost legendary amongst Fuji Rock veterans. The festival-goers were poorly prepared for the heavy rain and strong winds, and many needed medical attention from hypothermia. The organisers decided to cancel the second day of the event, and thus ended Japan's first outdoor rock festival. The organizers were criticized for being poorly prepared for bad weather, and for not organising enough buses to link the site to the nearest train station.The second year, the festival moved to a temporary location in Toyosu, on Tokyo's waterfront. Although the event was a success, many found the searing heat of mid-summer Tokyo too much to bear, and it was decided that the next event was to return to the relative coolness of the mountains.
It was in 1999 the festival found its home in Naeba, Niigata prefecture. Naeba is not anywhere close to Mt. Fuji, however, the festival still retains its original name. After the horrific first year, the organizers have been running the festival smoothly up until present.
2025
The festival was held from July 25 until 27. The headline acts were Fred Again, Vulfpeck and Vampire Weekend. Attendance for the weekend was 122,000 guests, with both the Saturday single-day tickets and the three-day passes selling out. 2025 also saw the addition of a new stage, Orange Echo, and the closure of the Day Dreaming stage on top of the mountain.Other major acts included Tycho, Perfume Genius, Ichiko Aoba, Kiasmos, Ezra Collective, Sambomaster, Ginger Root, NewDad, Jane Remover, Ego-Wrappin', The Hives, English Teacher, Galactic, and Jake Shimabukuro.
2024
The festival was held from July 26 until 28. The headline acts were The Killers, Kraftwerk and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.Other major acts included Floating Points, King Krule, Denki Groove, Hiromi's Sonicwonder, 2manydjs, the Yussef Dayes Experience, Ride, Fontaines D.C., The Allman Betts Band, and George Porter Jr..
2023
The festival was held from July 28 until 30. The headline acts were The Strokes, Foo Fighters and Lizzo.Other major acts included the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Eastern Youth, Yves Tumor, Yo La Tengo, Cory Henry, Overmono, Ryoji Ikeda, Slowdive, Weyes Blood, Romy, Cory Wong, FKJ, Yard Act, and Ásgeir.
2022
The festival was held from July 29 until 31, and saw the return of international artists. The headline acts were Vampire Weekend, Jack White and Halsey.Other major acts include: Syd, Awich, Dawes, Arlo Parks, Mogwai, Elephant Gym, and Hanaregumi. Many artists were forced to cancel their appearances due to contracting COVID-19 or other artist circumstances, including Black Pumas and Fontaines D.C..
2021
The festival was announced to be held from August 20 until 22 and the for the first time, the festival only included domestic artists due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The headline acts were Radwimps, King Gnu and Denki Groove.Other major acts include: The Bawdies, Indigo la End, Chai, Yoshinori Sunahara, Aoi Teshima, Char, and Ichiko Aoba.
2020
The festival was scheduled for Friday 21 August through Sunday 23 August 2020, with headline acts to include Tame Impala, The Strokes, Kiyoshiro Imawano Rock 'n' Forever tribute and Denki Groove. On 5 June 2020, this iteration of the festival was postponed to August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the 2020 Fuji Rock Festival was put together from past performances and broadcast live on YouTube on the original scheduled dates.2019
The festival ran from Friday 26 July until Sunday 28 July in 2019. Headline performers on The Green Stage were The Chemical Brothers, Sia, and The Cure. About 36 percent of the acts were in the rock genre, while the rest of the lineup was composed of pop, R&B, hip hop, and electronic artists.Other major acts include: Mitski, Toro y Moi, Kaytranada, The Lumineers, The Waterboys, Daniel Caesar, Alvvays, Ego-Wrappin', George Porter Jr., Chon, The Comet Is Coming, and Khruangbin.
2018
The festival ran from Friday 27 July until Sunday 29 July in 2018. Headline acts on The Green Stage were N.E.R.D, Kendrick Lamar, and Bob Dylan. Cumulative attendance reached 125,000 for the third year in a row, with a peak of 40,000 visitors on Saturday,Other major acts include: Mac DeMarco, Tune-Yards, Jon Hopkins, Hanaregumi, MGMT, Princess Nokia, The Avalanches, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Dirty Projectors, Hothouse Flowers, and Greensky Bluegrass.
2017
The festival ran from Friday 28 July until Sunday 30 July in 2017. Headline acts on The Green Stage were Gorillaz, Aphex Twin and Björk. Attendance was estimated to equal the previous year's 125,000 guests, with approximately ¥2.1 billion in ticket sales revenue.Other major acts include: Sampha, Rhye, Father John Misty, Temples, Quruli, The Strypes, Slowdive, and Thundercat.
2016
The festival ran from Friday 22 July until Sunday 24 July in 2016. Headline acts on The Green Stage were Sigur Rós, Beck and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Attendance for the "20th anniversary" festival was around 125,000 for the weekend.Other major acts include: The Birthday, The New Mastersounds, Kula Shaker, Special Others, Years & Years, and Kamasi Washington.
2015
The festival ran from Friday 24 July until Sunday 26 July in 2015. Headline acts on The Green Stage were Foo Fighters, Muse and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. Attendance was 115,000 visitors for the weekend, a dramatic increase over the ten-year-low of the 2014 festival.Other major acts include: Mannish Boys, Flume, Tamio Okuda, Happy Mondays, Galactic feat. Macy Gray, Of Monsters and Men, and Wilko Johnson.
2014
The festival ran from Friday 25 July until Sunday 27 July in 2014. Headline acts on The Green Stage were Franz Ferdinand, Arcade Fire and Jack Johnson. Kanye West was initially announced as Friday's headliner but later cancelled "due to artist circumstances". In total, 102,000 people attended.Other major acts include: The Birthday, Bombay Bicycle Club, Temples, Slowdive, Parquet Courts, moe., Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, St. Vincent, Phil Lesh & the Terrapin Family Band, The Lumineers, Lorde, SBTRKT, Buffalo Daughter, and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra.
2013
The festival ran from Friday 26 July until Sunday 28 July in 2013. Headline acts on The Green Stage were Nine Inch Nails, Björk and The Cure. Attendance was 118,000 people for the weekend.Other major acts include: Tame Impala, Porter Robinson, Death Grips, DJ Shadow, Tower of Power, Sparks, The Sea and Cake, Boys Noize, Garth Hudson, Ego-Wrappin' and the Gossip of Jaxx, Tahiti 80, Daughter, Jamie xx, Lettuce, and the David Murray Big Band feat. Macy Gray.