When event organizer Smash first approached the residents living around Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture about hosting the Fuji Rock Festival in 1999, they had reservations.
“The residents and farmers were nervous. They wanted to know if the noise would affect the birds ... and where exactly the orchestra would play,” Smash promoter and international booker Johnnie Moylett says. “But after that first festival, they reported that the Fuji Rock crowd was better behaved than the winter skiing community.”
The music festival has been based in Naeba ever since, and this year’s edition, held from July 26 to 28, marks the 25th anniversary of Fuji Rock’s Niigata debut. Just as older Japanese associate the summer with Bon dancing and fireworks, there’s a whole new generation for whom summer means a weekend camping trip soundtracked by Foo Fighters, Bjork or Franz Ferdinand.
This summer experience isn’t limited to Fuji Rock, either — the season is packed with opportunities to watch live music outdoors. The “big four” festivals, however, include Fuji Rock, Rock In Japan Festival (Aug. 3-4, 10-12 in Chiba; Sept. 14-15, 21-23 in Ibaraki), Rising Sun Rock Festival (Aug. 16-17 in Hokkaido) and Summer Sonic (Aug. 17-18 in Chiba and Osaka) — all of which have risen in popularity despite setbacks from the Great East Japan Earthquake (2011) and the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-21). With pandemic restrictions lifted and tourism booming, the outlook for these events heading into 2024 is one full of celebration and optimism.
In theory, that is.
A new list of challenges now confronts the country’s summer concert scene, including issues that aren’t all unique to Japan. First, there is a lack of newer artists capable of fulfilling the role of headliner, followed by rising summer temperatures brought on by the climate crisis. Additionally, the weak yen may be a possible boon for festival tourism, but it also limits what organizers can do in terms of attracting the biggest names and financing their increasingly complicated and expensive stage shows.
While an impressive roster of acts is still set to come to Japan this year, it’s increasingly looking like it might be curtains for the summer festival as we’ve come to know it.
Headliner news
Creativeman President Naoki Shimizu has known for some time that he was going to have to shake up his company’s flagship Summer Sonic festival.
“Festivals around the world are having trouble booking artists this year,” he says — and he’s right. Big-name events such as Glastonbury, Coachella and Lollapalooza saw their lineups met with a collective “meh” on social media, while American music outlet Consequence dubbed this “The Year of the Underwhelming Festival Headliner.”
For its part, Summer Sonic is hosting two acts that have never headlined a Japanese festival before: Italian rockers and former Eurovision champs Maneskin, and British heavy rock outfit Bring Me The Horizon. “Both of these groups had successful arena tours in Japan last year,” Shimizu notes of his picks.
The move to make them headliners at this year’s event drew surprise from critics, but it was a move Creativeman needed to make.
“Shimizu chose these two artists based on his belief that ‘we should nurture our own headliners,’” says Rolling Stone Japan editor Toshiya Oguma, noting that both acts made strong impressions on Japanese concertgoers at prior editions of Summer Sonic and that both are no strangers to Japanese entertainment (Bring Me The Horizon having collaborated with Babymetal and Maneskin having paired with anime’s Paru Itagaki).
For years, Japan’s music festivals could turn to a rotating cast of familiar names to ping-pong between summer events. Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails and other acts coming up primarily in the 1990s became solid staples in the 2000s. Acts in this lane can still deliver, too. Last year, Foo Fighters delivered an emotionally charged set at Fuji Rock, their first following the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. But they are still aging out of this space. The next generation of headline-worthy acts hasn’t yet emerged ... or, at least, lacks the same pull.
“It has become increasingly difficult to secure headliners as big-name artists prefer to tour doing their own headline shows,” Moylett says. “It has become very challenging. The pool of headliners to select from is now more like a pond than a pool.”
Fuji Rock’s trio of headliners for this year reveals this tension at play. Pioneering German act Kraftwerk carries a legacy that connects with older concertgoers but lacks the sizzle younger audiences are drawn to. Ex-Oasis member Noel Gallagher, who’ll perform with his High Flying Birds outfit, also feels like a security blanket for a certain type of ’90s music fan.
To balance things out, Smash booked American R&B star SZA for its Friday headline spot, an attempt to cultivate a potential new act that the event could turn to in the future and one who would spark excitement among the highly coveted Gen Z audience.
“Compared to the other two headliners, SZA was expected to bring a breath of fresh air to Fuji Rock,” Oguma says. Note his use of “was” — late last month, Fuji Rock announced that SZA had canceled.
“It came as a shock,” Moylett says of the news. “We are currently awaiting her statement explaining the reason why. Please know that we are doing everything we can to find a suitable replacement and appreciate everyone's patience and understanding. It is a very difficult situation.”
The Japan Times reached out to SZA’s team for comment but did not hear back from them by the time of publication. [Update: On June 13 it was announced that rock act The Killers will fill the Friday headline slot.]
The announcement naturally got social media users sleuthing out some possible reasons for the cancellation. Japanese fans who caught SZA’s set at last weekend’s Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona were impressed by the stage production ... and wondered if it would cost too much given the weak yen. Oguma also mentions economic factors, explaining that artists who break out in the United States, for example, take longer to connect in Japan. By the time a festival here comes courting, their fees have already become too high.
Trickle-down rock-o-nomics
The impact of the weak yen, recently hovering between ¥155 and ¥158 to the U.S. dollar, is sending ripples down the rosters of any festival here that brings over international acts.
“It’s becoming more difficult for Japanese promoters to invite overseas artists at the same rate, so in recent years there has been a trend of linking up with other Asian festivals and making offers together,” Oguma says, pointing to American hardcore outfit Turnstile as an example. That group will appear at Indonesia’s We The Fest (July 19-21) before heading to Fuji Rock (July 26-28) and on to South Korea’s Pentaport Rock Festival (Aug. 2-4).
Naturally, rising costs are also impacting concertgoers. Single-day tickets for all the major festivals have risen year on year. A decade ago, one day at Summer Sonic and Fuji Rock set punters back ¥15,500 and ¥18,300, respectively. This year, it will cost them ¥19,000 and ¥25,500.
In the case of Fuji Rock, that’s just for entry. Attendees also have to factor in transportation to Naeba and, if they plan on staying multiple days, lodging becomes an issue. Coupled with food, drinks and other supplies, the price tag can appear intimidating to younger customers.
Seemingly aware of the affluence divide, Smash has started catering more to an older and presumably wealthier audience. This year, Fuji Rock will introduce a new “glamping” area, as well as a service called Fuji Rock Go Round that shuttles users between stages. Moylett says other festivals offer such services and that the shuttle is particularly attractive to attendees with children — a demographic that’s on the rise.
“We’ve observed that the audience now enjoys variety and the discovery of new artists,” Moylett says. “The appeal has shifted to it being more like a resort holiday (or a) social occasion for friends who only see each other at festival time to reconnect.”
Hot hot heat
Owing to its proximity to urban population bases, Summer Sonic has an advantage when it comes to commuting. In fact, it was announced the Tokyo leg had sold out just last week. Still, the event has its own set of challenges.
Last year, the festival scored a coup in landing the Japan debut of hugely popular K-pop act NewJeans. The line to get into Zozo Marine Stadium in Chiba an hour prior to the quintent’s set was as long as any all weekend, with some fans arriving as early as 4 a.m. in order to score stagefront spots. Once inside, the audience was as thick as it was for any headliner.
However, this all played out at noon with the sun beating down on a cement tarmac and temperatures in the high 30s Celsius. Stadium rules forbid sports drinks from being brought into the venue — you’re allowed water or tea. So if you ran out of water (or had your Pocari Sweat confiscated), you weren’t about to leave and lose your spot. As a result, more than 100 people reported heatstroke symptoms.
High temperatures impacted every summer music festival last year, and it’s an issue the industry is facing worldwide. In Australia, for example, multiple events were canceled earlier this year in part due to extreme heat. And Japan is gearing up for another scorcher.
“The hot summer last year and this year is partially due to global warming and partially due to other natural phenomena such as El Nino and La Nina,” says Yasuko Kameyama, a professor at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences at the University of Tokyo. “Summer may become cooler again when the latter diminishes, but again it could become even hotter some time later due to climate change.”
Fuji Rock’s mountain setting usually sees rain — often light, sometimes fierce — and though annoying in the short term, the cloudbursts tend to cool things down. The weather is unpredictable, though. Last year, it didn’t rain at all, resulting in one of the more brutally hot Fuji Rock’s in recent memories.
Rising Sun similarly benefits from its Hokkaido setting, but the festival still takes place in August — as do Rock In Japan and Summer Sonic.
“What can be done in the short term depends on each festival,” Kameyama continues. “For example, some sessions of Summer Sonic are held indoors in Makuhari Messe (convention center). I think in Tokyo and most places in Japan, all the (performances) should be held indoors with air conditioning.”
Shimizu says Creativeman has gone to great lengths to avoid a repeat of last year’s heatstrokes. “The rule that sports drinks cannot be brought into the stadium has been changed,” he says before adding that “water stations will be set up and water will be distributed.” Buses will also shuttle guests between the main venues.
“The problem in Japan is that the curfew is early,” he says. “If you avoid the hottest hours of 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., there won't be enough time (for the whole festival). However, Summer Sonic Tokyo has four indoor stages ... so we could operate those and delay the start of the outdoor ones.”
Kameyama sees a more central problem: “I am personally surprised that some music festivals in Japan are still scheduled during the hottest season.”
“There’s no reason why music festivals must be held during summer,” Kameyama says, echoing an argument that also came up during Tokyo’s hosting of the Olympics. “It should be moved to another season.”
The scheduling, in place when school is out, is something the festivals have played around with to some extent. In 2021, Creativeman had to cancel Summer Sonic, and instead held a stripped-down event called Supersonic in September. This year’s Ibaraki leg of Rock In Japan, meanwhile, takes place in September, and while the extra dates are meant to celebrate its anniversary, it may double as an experiment to see if more Japanese fans are willing to head out when the temperatures are lower.
Local solutions
What does the music festival of the future look like? We may be getting our first glimpse of it this weekend in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture. Chagu Chagu Rock Festival (June 8-9) is smaller in scale and currently seeing temperatures in the mid-20s.
“Our goal is to make Iwate more lively through this event, and to motivate people to visit,” says Rinka Sato, an employee at Chagu organizer Television Iwate. “We hope that not only Iwate residents but also people from outside the prefecture will be drawn to Chagu Rock.”
Inspired by a traditional local festival, Chagu is more compact with fewer performers but still caters to a wide variety of music fans. “We want people of all ages to come,” Sato says, “so although we call it a ‘rock festival,’ we will have artists from a variety of genres. Adults can get in for ¥10,000.”
With rising costs an issue, smaller regional festivals may be able to find a lifeline in tourism initiatives meant to bring the increasing number of visitors to Japan to places other than Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. These kinds of events dotted the musical map in the 2010s, only for the pandemic to stall their momentum. Now, almost every one of the country’s 47 prefectures boasts at least one significant musical gathering.
Given their newness and focus on domestic concertgoers, these regional festivals can also be more flexible time-wise, happening in June (Chagu Chagu; Hibiya Music Festival in Tokyo), early July (Rural in Fukushima Prefecture) or September (Ringo Festival in Nagano Prefecture).
Catering to a specific genre of music can be just as inviting. “Although it is not a small-scale festival, Pop Yours is one of the most successful music festivals in Japan in recent years,” Oguma says. “It has succeeded in creating a much more free and fun space in comparison to the rock festivals. Pop Yours has a feeling similar to that of an overseas live performance.”
A similar energy comes through at electronic music gatherings like Ultra Japan, held in the cooler month of September, and Oguma also points to Bikn Shibuya, an event where Japanese acts and performers from around Asia came together to play a Tokyo-based mini-festival.
Pivoting from a Western music repertoire to an Asia-centric one is also key to success.
“This year, there are more Asian artists from Korea and Thailand,” Shimizu says about Summer Sonic, which has leaned into K-pop, Thai artists and Taiwanese bands in recent years. “The reason why Summer Sonic sells out so quickly is because of the increase in Japanese and Asian performers.”
For its part, Fuji Rock, which has traditionally been more Anglo-centric in its bookings, is similarly looking to Asia, with Moylett mentioning countries like Thailand, Indonesia and India, and an effort to become less dependent on Western performers.
“I think it's important for the music industry to move forward with a new generation of people, along with the listeners,” Oguma says. “It has been over 20 years since both Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic were founded, so I think it would be interesting if a new festival were to emerge from an organization other than Smash or Creativeman.”
Twenty-five years ago, the prospect of a summer music festival in a place like Naeba seemed like a wild proposition, but it turned out to be a huge success. It seems the race is on to create Japan’s next big summer experience.
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