A good three-point formula to apply when reviewing a bar is to consider 1) the setting, 2) the people and 3) the music. These are the main ingredients that best sum it up and measure its potential. Some places score higher on some counts than they do on others, but the nightlife at the Fuji Rock Festival busts the Richter scale on all three. I should know: I've been every year since it began in 1997 and partied till dawn at most of them. It's hard not to.
You want setting? How about a beautiful mountain valley in Naeba, Niigata Prefecture, with a river winding its way through tall banks of pine trees. This will be the festival's sixth year in this natural setting and each year it gets bigger by either extending further along the river or reaching higher up into the mountains.
You want people? FRF is a rock 'n' roll utopia. Imagine every card-carrying rocker from across the country converging on Naeba for a three-day party. It is a special slice of the Japanese population that comes together here once a year to create a unique city of 35,000 music lovers, each lured into the mountains by their own invisible piper. You will see more towel-heads and dreadlocks and tattoos and pierces here than anywhere else in the country. And -- much to the amazement of visiting foreigners -- you will see them all using pocket ashtrays and properly sorting their garbage.