Fujirockers: The official Fuji Rock Festival blog

Fujirockers.org have their own goods, including this very awesome ponchoesque towel. Probably more useful when the sun is beating down on you, but a great design nonetheless. The hood keeps both your head and the back of your neck from those nasty UV rays. Admittedly not something that seems to be a problem at this year’s fest, but hey, walking around in the pouring rain all day means you’ll need a towel eventually, right?

They’re also selling some pretty cool t-shirts, onsen towels, as well as GIANT charity badges at only 100 Yen a pop. (Or more if you’re feeling charitable. Which you should, given that it’s for…you know, charity and all.) Continue Reading…

Anyone who has ever been to the Fuji Rock festival will be able to attest to the fact that the Japanese are the most prepared people in the world when it comes to outdoor activities. Not only are they prepared, bringing every manner of clothing, food and drink preparation equipment, tents, chairs and other leisure goods, but the stuff that they bring is ultra trendy. Making a wonderful contribution to the fashion end of Fuji is the excellent Japanese clothing brand/shop Beams. They have a long history (going all the way back to 2004) with the festival often making clothes and official merchandise for Fuji Rockers as well as clothing for the volunteers and other staff. This year, their collection of T-shirts is definitely worth mentioning because not only are they very cool but they are also for charity. Continue Reading…

A number FRF ’10 acts will be signing autographs for fans at the Ganban shop outside of the main gate and at the Ganban Square in the Oasis food area all weekend long.  The Entrance Band, Mustang, La Ruda, and Mallacan will play late night, intimate gigs too in addition to scrawling their names on merch.  The full schedule is posted at Ganban’s stands.

My esteemed brothers-in-rock have offered some very fine pieces of advice in the posts below this one.  Here’s a few more pointers to add to the list.

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“Fuji Rock won’t really be like Glastonbury until the Emperor shows up in a pink wig.” – Jon Helmer, Fuji Rock documentarian

In case you’re looking for the perfect Christmas present for a fellow Fuji Rocker, the chance comes early this year. Jon Helmer is bringing his double-DVD documentary on ten years of the festival to Naeba. It’s called Tents & Bugs & Rock N Roll, and he’ll be screening the four-hour video at a mobile cinema that will move around the festival grounds. He’s also selling copies for ¥2,000. Instead of a history of rock stars, legendary performances and big name acts, Heller has turned his camera on the fans, the staff and occasionally the artists back stage. This is a people’s history of Fuji Rock, with no narration, no titles, and a roughly chronological structure that covers the years 1999 (Fuji Rock’s first year in Naeba) to 2008. The video was produced in 2009, and now it’s ready for it’s grand debut. A few of the gems you’ll witness amidst the sprawling 245 minutes of the DVD’s length include Joe Strummer planning out the lot that went on to become the Palace of Wonder, Henry Rollins getting psyched up to hit the Green Stage, Jam Master Jay backstage at the Red Marquee…. Continue Reading…

At the very beginning of Jon Helmer’s DVD Tents & Bugs and Rock N Roll, we see a dreadlocked Aussie or Kiwi or Brit (damned accents) standing outside the Naeba hotels getting totally excited about the fact that, somewhere within the walls of that hotel is Limp fucking Bizkit (profanity added by the present writer to better portray said excitement). This first section having been filmed in 1999, I concluded that either a) this was exactly the sort of time-warp nostalgia experience you look for in a DVD like this, because clearly the memo from on hipster high that the Bizkit suck hadn’t yet been circulated, or quite possibly b) this gentleman just thinks for himself. (For the record, I still think “Break Stuff” is one of the top 5 greatest raging angry songs ever.)
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