April signals the start of Japan’s long music festival season. Rainbow Disco Club usually offers one of the first destination gatherings in the country, putting on a multi-day dance party in Higashiizu, Shizuoka Prefecture.
“It’s gorgeous. You go past the water ... the ocean. You have mountains and greenery and house music. It’s the perfect size, and I find it a really beautiful festival,” says Lauren Rose Kocher, COO and cofounder of Zaiko, a Tokyo-based e-ticketing platform founded a year and a half ago.
Like nearly all live music events in Japan, however, Rainbow Disco Club canceled its 2020 edition as the COVID-19 pandemic took off, joining a long list of other live venues and music organizers that are already feeling the economic pinch. Dozens of spaces across the archipelago have turned to crowdfunding to weather this period, but the financial toll from the outbreak means some won’t make it to 2021.