You can’t fault the organizers of Fuji Rock Festival for failing to predict how thoroughly the COVID-19 outbreak would engulf the planet when they released a solemn announcement in late January, titled “Festival Crisis.”
Granted, those were earlier, simpler times. But it still felt a teeny bit hyperbolic to speak of a “crisis” in the context of a discussion focused not on the climate or public health emergencies, but on garbage, good manners and camping chairs.
First, some context: After hitting a thin patch during the previous decade, the past few years of Fuji Rock have been a roaring success, even if torrential rain has left the site looking like a scene from Sam Mendes’ “1917.”