BootsnAll Travel Network



FujiRock Festival 2005

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“Oh my god I can’t believe, I’ve never been this far away from home!” This line is repeating over and over in my head and I can’t seem to get it out! This past weekend, I spent 3 days with some of my ALT friends at a music/rock and roll festival in Nigata Prefecture (2-3 hr. north of where I live). The festival is known as “FujiRock” or as you would say it in Japanese, “FujiRocku!” Supposedly, this is the largest music festival in Japan held once a year. The festival started on Friday and lasted until Sunday but we actually made our way there Thursday afternoon and got back Monday afternoon so it turned out to be almost a 5 day ordeal. Of course I had to take Friday and Monday off from work but was it worth it? HELL YEAH!! I don’t know and listen much to Rock and Roll music (or as I like to call it “Angry Music!”) I wasn’t planning on attending this event at all. Given the fact that the 3 day festival pass cost the same amount as one month’s rent, it did not appeal to me at all. However, my neighbor, fellow ALT friend and a HUGE music feign was all too thrilled for this upcoming festival. I think he started talking about it back in April! When we approached July and the semester finished for summer vacation, he was literally bouncing off the wall waiting for FujiRock to come. The last couple of months, we’ve been hanging out more and more, just chilling, having some beer while listening to tunes. Most of the tunes he played I really didn’t know at all but at some point, some songs started to grow on me. After nights of drinking, listening to music and convincing me to go, I finally decided to do it. The decision came down not because how much I love the music or the artist/band that was going to be there but the experience of going to a 3 day rock n roll festival with my English speaking friends in Japan. In addition, it was 3 days of music and staying in a tent we bring ourselves!

So what made this festival so special for foreigners like myself and others in Japan was that the bands that came were mainly bands from the States and the UK and these bands were top named bands that has already made it big! I’m about to tell you who they are and I still can’t believe I saw them! I wasn’t all that thrilled at first when I saw who was coming considering I don’t listen to their music much or only know a few of their songs but here are some of the big bands LIVE!! I saw COLDPLAY, FOO FIGHTERS, CAKE, BECK, FATBOY SLIM, THE BEACH BOYS(yup, still alive and touring! Kokomo rocked!!), MOBY, and NEW ORDER! Other bands I never heard of at all such as Kaiser Chiefs, The Bravery, The Futureheads, The Go Team, and DJs like Vitalic and Mylo were awesome. They had great shows and great tunes. Thanks to my neighbor who constantly played their songs for me prior to FujiRock, I was able to enjoy them more. Coldplay and Foo Fighter were one of my favorite bands to see live since I was standing relatively close to the front. Coldplay was just beautiful! Chris Martin, the lead singer, was amazing. I knew all of the music they played so I enjoyed that the most. Foo Fighter I only recognized a few songs but the energy of that performance was OFF the HOOK!! There was just so much ENERGY and Dave Grohl was insanely awesome in a rock n roll way. His rock n roll head bobbing and his scream reminded me of Steve Tyler from Aerosmith which was crazy cool. Of course Coldplay and Foo Fighter played at the largest stage with an audience capacity of up to 30,000 people. Did I mention FujiRock was held at a ski resort with 6 stages? While they played on stage, from time to time, I would awe myself by looking back at how many people there were watching, jumping, screaming, and dancing like I was. It’s an amazing feeling that I would have to say you must experience for yourself to understand it. I was definitely on a natural high! According to my friends who have seen Foo Fighter live before, that was one of their best performances he has ever seen from them. I think that was my ultimate rock n roll concert experience for FujiRock! Overall I think I saw about 20 bands or artist over the 3 days period. Each day, there were at least 50 shows going on, can you imagine how big this festival is?!

Even though FujiRock sounded it went so well, which it did overall, nature wasn’t too kind to us. It rained and it rained a lot! Saturday was the worst when it rained ALL day long. Most of us did not bring our rain gear and my windbreaker, although a little waterproof was not much help at all. Surprisingly the rain didn’t scatter the crowd and they continued to stand out in the pouring rain dancing and screaming. Kudos to the Japanese audience! I wasn’t too thrilled with the rain because it made the grounds very very muddy and when you have couple of thousands people trotting in it, it gets REALLY ugly and messy. I was wearing strapped on sandals so my feet were pretty much taking a mud bath. I don’t know if it would be worse wearing shoes and socks because the socks eventually get soggy and the inside of the shoes are completely wet. I hate that feeling! At least my sandals dried up the next day with mud crust but I bet my friends who wore shoes still had wet shoes and socks the next day. Let see, what else? Oh yeah, having just the tent is not enough. It would have been nice if there was a little padding to sleep on and a thin blanket to cover myself. I had to use a shirt to cover my cold feet and used my windbreaker in place of a blanket. I should have brought a towel too, either to wipe off the sweat or the cold rain. It was also a pain in the ass to wait in long lines in the morning to use the porta-potty and the porta-sink to wash my face and brush my teeth. I had many incidents where I just used a bush to do my waste disposal business. 3 days of not showering didn’t bother me that much since I had deodorant but not washing my hair was getting to me when it started to itch on the 3rd day. Well, that’s about it that I have to complain about but other than the, FujiRock Festival 2005 was awesome, probably something that will be unforgettable! FujiRock Festival 2006? We’ll see! I still think it’s “Angry Music!” but I like it now! Hehe..

I wish I could show you pictures but its all on a disposable camera!



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