This was one of the best festival experiences ever. It poured constantly, over 100.000 people, uneven campground, long ways to the toilet, chairs everywhere – offset by an amazing hippy-esque vibe, delicious food, a great line-up, and toilets that you wanted to sit down on after three days of rocknroll.
We came prepared with tents, mattresses, tarp, rain capes and everything that was transportable by plane to Japan. It was my first festival without BBQing, palettes of beer and lawn chairs. Yet it was my first festival where you’d sort every spoon and every bottle into recycling stations, where you wouldn’t find a piece of trash anywhere and where they didn’t sell any ice cream popsicles. We arrived on the Shikansen and the organisation from the arrival at the trainstation to the shuttle to the festival site to the transport back was absolutely flawless.
I have never seen so many kids at any festival, there was a massive playground that I would have been happy to play on, we saw a couple getting married and the stream that runs through the festival grounds would have been a great chance to cool down (if not for the insane amounts of rain that kept everything wet anyhow).
The ways between the different stages were rather long but it was beautiful to walk through the woods, take in the scenery and more than once I was in awe of the low-lying clouds drifting through the mountain valley. Sunsets were spectacular and so were the sudden weather changes.
Music was everywhere, little stages all over the place and the opportunity to catch music you didn’t even have on the radar.
The Cure was headlining on Sunday night and played the longest show of all times. While thoroughly enjoying the first hour or so, we had to turn to fun games and additional entertainment to keep the eyes open. Their setlist held a whopping 36! songs.
So my absolute highlight remains Nine Inch Nails who brought it with full force supported by thunder at lightning which tinted their entire black and white stage show in an eery light and made it a powerful show. I loved it. Lightening is it!
See you next year? Maybe. There apparently is the same event, the same weekend, the same line-up happening in Korea as well!
So maybe: See you next year, Korea! Having seen the Japanese do a festival was awesome – I’d be interested in seeing the Koreans do it, too.
Practicalities:
If you intend to go to Fujirock, here’s my packing list!
The official recommendation:
My personal add-ons: