The Coachella of Japan: Fuji Rock Festival

Fuji Rock began as Japan’s only outdoor rock music festival, first taking place on July 26 1997 at Tenjinyama Ski Resort in Yamanashi near the base of Mt. Fuji.

To this day this is the only instance of the festival to take place in any relative proximity to the mountain. Unfortunately, the first annual event did not go according to plans, with a typhoon causing numerous cases of hypothermia and canceling the second day of the festival.

Despite this, Fuji Rock was immediately legendary for its packed and very diverse lineup featuring acts such as Rage Against The Machine, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Aphex Twin, Weezer, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Square Pusher, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose lead singer, Anthony Kiedis performed with a broken arm through the inclement weather.

The next year, organizers moved the festival to the Tokyo Bay waterfront, however, ironically they received numerous complaints of heat under the scorching summer sun of Japanese summers. Therefore they decided the festival would return to the mountains, this time in Niigata’s Naeba Ski Resort, where the festival would remain.

Over the next two decades, the festival has gone smoothly aside from its cancellation in 2020 due to COVID-19. Notable acts over the years include Kendrick Lamar, Radiohead, Eminem, Skrillex, Coldplay, Bootsy Collins, Iggy Pop & The Stooges, and wide range of musicians from all over the world and spanning a wide range of genres such as rock, punk, electronic, and hip hop.

The 2022 festival will welcome back foreign musicians for the first time since the start of the pandemic, and the lineup, announced on April 1st, includes Bonobo, Jack White, Halsey, Black Pumas, Syd, Mura Masa, and others.

Fuji Rock festival remains by far Japan’s most notable and lucrative music festival, welcoming as many as 100,000 attendees at once.

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