With the news that this year’s Fuji Rock Festival would be postponed until 2021, summer 2020 became the season of no music in Japan.
Organizer Smash Japan’s decision to not hold the annual gathering at the Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata over COVID-19 concerns officially cleared this year’s once-crowded summer festival calendar. Rock In Japan Festival in Ibaraki Prefecture and Rising Sun Rock Festival in Hokkaido, two of the other cornerstones of the festival circuit, canceled earlier. Summer Sonic, typically held every August simultaneously in Osaka and Tokyo by event company Creativeman, had previously bowed out due to the Olympics, though it was — and still is — planning a slightly rebranded event called Supersonic scheduled for late September.
It’s not just the marquee festivals taking 2020 off, though. Dozens of smaller music gatherings across Japan that offered large-scale live experiences to those in places that don’t often get major music events are also off for the summer. Coupled with the majority of the country’s clubs and live music venues remaining closed, music fans should expect to spend a lot more time at home glued to the small screen, with air conditioning on full blast.