Fujirockers: The official fansite of the Fuji Rock Festival

PROTECT THE DANCE CULTURE!

Petitioning against the preposterously irrelevant prostitution law passed back in 1948 outlawing late-night clubs and other questionable activity that has recently resurfaced in order for the powers that be to crack down on all-night dance clubs.

There are the usual conservative arguments against a late-night dance (rave?) culture. For example, kids doing drugs or committing acts of violence. Although, if you have been to these clubs, you would realize first-hand that 1) because this is Japan, a country notorious for very strict narcotics legislation, there really is not any drug use to speak of and 2) dancers take their angst out on the dance floor! Let’s DANCE members pledge against these divisive and dangerous acts nonetheless.

In Osaka, and the entire Kansai region actually, cops have been enforcing the curfew and killing the party scene and music clubs as early as midnight. Businesses losing money, countless talented DJs out of work, young people with nowhere to let loose, and now rumors that the same conservative notion is headed for Tokyo has turned up this heated debate to the breaking point; party people are really worried and thus spurred into action.

Changing these outdated laws will require strength in numbers. Apparently 100,000 signatures is the threshold that Let’s DANCE is seeking. If two-thirds of the attendees here at FRF this weekend alone signed the petition they would succeed in reaching that goal. To protect the dance culture, head over to the FujiRockers tent in the Shokudo and sign up. Do it for the children.

FLYER

Tohoku Livehouse Daisakusen has a table in the FujiRockers tent by the Shokudo. They are raising awareness and funds towards their project to build music venues along the devastated Tohoku-Sanriku coastal area.

By consciously building venues as part of the grand revival schematics, Miyako, Ofunato and Ishinomaki will become creative hubs, enticing musicians from around Japan and the world to visit the area and perform. Dual-purpose in this pursuit is of course the positive energy brought with performances, but also a reciprocal inspiration exchange, affecting the artist’s themselves with that spirit of human revival and perseverance.

Coming to FRF every year never ceases to fill me with great memories and lots of new ideas for the future. If you are listening to solar powered DJ booths on the Avalon lawn, eating curry cooked with bio-fuel, or buying hand-crafted hemp shirts direct from the artist, the community vibe and sustainable appeal is ever-present, and it renews my faith in the kindness of strangers and the resilience of humanity.

The Livehouse initiative can be found online here. Get connected, and if you have the time and energy, join in some way, any way, and help out the collective. Keep jamming amidst the rubble.

SLOW TURTLE AND LITTLE EAGLE POSE IN FRONT OF THE WOOD FAIRY

FOH (Field of Heaven) is by far the crowd favorite stage for ambiance and that effervescent hand-made feel. The do-it-yourself makeshift boutiques, light art installations, and overall deadhead hippie vibe drifting through the air. What’s that I smell? (Just kidding, this is FRF, and even with the growing international presence, it’s still Japan.)

What enticed me into Slow Turtle and Little Eagle’s enterprise was the life-size root sculpture of a sexy tree fairy out front amidst their tasteful and welcoming naturalist entrance installation. We got to talking a bit about their respective hand-made goods for sale, turns out Little Eagle lives on the Big Island Hawaii 10 months out of the year, making special return trips to her native Japan for Fuji Rock and other summer festivals, selling her elegant and flowing design work, dresses, blouses and other comfy looking hippie gear. Slow Turtle practices 60s free-love style lettering and crafts intricate multi-color patterns to be hand-printed, residual flashbacks of twenty years ago or so when the couple (previously married) road tripped around the US, following the Grateful Dead and other fleeting movements of the era. They got bored in Japan, they said, so they headed west. They especially like the wide-open spaces, wilderness, California Redwoods, and Native American population. Japanese artists and free thinkers were drawn to the space and time offered in the US of yore. I met a handful of other FOH vendors who also spent significant time overseas soaking up those influences and coming back to Japan to offer a refined fusion product especially for the lucky FRF attendees. They have been doing so for 14 years!

If you need a sweet throwback shirt or a long one-piece that feels on your body like a cool zephyr on a warm sunny day, head on over to their unassuming geodesic dome, wrapped in twigs and berries, and try on some artful craft apparel via hangers made of silken twine. You can also visit their webshop at SLOW TURTLE.NET

The Tokyo Fashion blog has some great pics from Fuji Rock Festival ‘11.

Click here to have a look

Express yourself

I had a friend who came over to Japan from Australia to go to Fuji Rock and after a day there she said to me that one of the biggest differences between this festival and the ones she had been to overseas were that so many of the attendees were just so hip and fashion conscious. Generally speaking I think that the Japanese are the most fashionable people on earth but there is something about Fuji Rock that seems to attract the most imaginative and unique dressers from all over the country. The big theme this year for the girls seemed to be floral head bands. Also, I think that many of the outdoor apparel brands have realized that lots of their clothes get used at outdoor music festivals so they have really added some funky designs and colors to their rainwear. The sounds at Fuji are always amazing but there is also so much to keep the visual centers of your brain buzzing with stimulation too. For more photos see below.

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For my last vibe piece of 2011’s fantastic Fuji Rock Festival, I thought I would let the people speak. So, packing up in the campground, I asked a slew of campers and a few staff a simple question, “What was the best thing about Fuji Rock this year?”
I knew people would say, Chemical Brothers, Coldplay and Thai food, but some other responses surprised me, made me laugh, made me think, and made me already nostalgic for something that may have just happened yesterday!
So, with no further ado, here is a small sampling of some Fuji rockers favorite top memories of the fest:
- Wilco
- Chemical Brothers
- Fireworks during Coldplay
- Onigiri
- Pole dance
- a flat tent space
- Heineken
- Hanaregumi
- Many kids babble, I’m play too (???)
- Enjoy bike (dude rode a hog to the fest from who knows where)
- “Minna de pa-ti” (Everyone partying)
- “Dai shizen” (Big nature)
- the girls
- the recycling
- “Ame” (the rain)
- frog caps
- made up with my girlfriend (congrats!)
- so many artist positive vibes to Japan, Tohoku
- frog caps (yes, again)
- Mot playing Rookie A-GoGo stage
- Tom Yum Ramen
- Hanggai throat singing in the forest
- Bacon on a stick and Rum Chai for breakfast
- Crystal Palace mosh pit for Manu Chao and the way the whole crowd embraced my hairy naked chest (!)
- hanging out with Manu Chao backstage (jealous)
- Yummy fuckin’ hamburgers (mmm…also good for breakfast)

So maybe that rekindles a special memory for you, maybe you salivate a little, maybe you wonder how the hell to get backstage to hang out with Manu Chao (staff secrets). Any way you cut it, I am sure you have your own laundry list of hilarious, momentous, audacious and wonderful experiences to take with you and tell stories about for years to come. Maybe you recycle more. Maybe you buy a CD of your new favorite Japanese artist, maybe you quit wearing shoes.
So, remember what you learned, reminisce about what you miss, and I’ll see you next year. ☺

THE SHIRTLESS WONDERS

The shirtless wonder troupe versus the post-show banter duo; it is quite the conundrum for me to pick my most entertaining people of the evening, so maybe you can help me.

Congotronics vs Rockers playing Orange Court tonight had festival-goers freaking out in a whole new groove. The stretch of songs for up to 15 minutes, and the booty-shaking and stuff struttin’ displayed up on stage encouraged some new moves out in the crowd. The 6 guys in front of me dancing in particular. I think it was the skinny one who first decided to take off his T-shirt, then one buddy followed suit, and the next. Soon even the most conservative friend was bearing nips front house left, and dancing like werewolves around a backpack sitting in 2 inches of mud with all their shirts piled atop. Anyway, they had a little synchronization going on in a circular rain dance spectacle that had tons of paparazzi snapping shots at their bony bods. I can’t really explain in words here the hilarity of their moves, but just imagine convulsing, ska steps, and ‘the creep’ mixed in with kalimba-fueled rhythms and evolving into truly modern modern-dance over the course of 10 minutes. One guy eventually collapsed onto the backpack and shirt pile in exhaustion, favoring a mud puddle over keeping up the dancing energy that Congotronics vs Rockers commands.

After the show, the exodus out of the far depths of Orange Court hosted my other funny people episode of the day, this one heard, not seen from a few people behind. As soon as we reached FOH, Panic’s “Fire on the Mountain” was playing, and promptly got log-jammed in two American festival-goers heads. From then on, “Fire, Fire on a mountain!” was shouted, without ever any Japanese or other input, aside from eventually some comments about “Singing alone OK, you can do it is OK!” So after the Fire on a Mountain had spread beyond awkward measure, to hilarity, and finally to OK, that’s-enough-pal frequency, the pair out of nowhere began singing the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song, courtesy a young Will Smith. The song, butchered as it was, was nostalgic, however the commentary that followed was surprisingly insightful. “Like, who rides a cab all the way from Philadelphia to California?” Or, “Man, if I was a cabby, and somebody told me to ’smell ya later,’ you know what I would do…?”

I don’t think it was that these two dudes were actually that funny, but rather that the shuffling muddy silence after all their ridiculousness, and I think a few crickets, magnified the humor for me, and quite possibly me alone. So use your imagination about the dancers, and tell me, who will it be for number one Saturday night funny?

(Poor) Photo by J Muzacz

What music?

I ran into three girls today and started talking to them about who they were interested in seeing at Fuji Rock this year. They all laughed and said they are not really interested in music and come to Fuji because they love the natural setting, the food and the atmosphere. I was quite shocked but very impressed that there are people here who have just come to soak up the good vibes from the people, trees and rivers. The leader of their group Katsura, explained to me that this was her 7th time at the festival and she never even checks to see who is playing before deciding to come or not. Now that is a serious Fuji Rock fan!

Have you spotted these hearts walking around today? There are three of them, and I suspect they’re the same sorts who usually dress up as stilt-walking robot alien things to give the kids nightmares. This year they’re much more cuddly and fun, but still, this one got in my way, so I smashed her. Not really.

FUJI FASHION OF THE DAY: RAINCOATS

I hoped the forecast of 100% rain would be wrong. It’s not. It’s 100% raining. My new tent neighbors from England are frantically trying to tie-down their tent and keep things dry, though they both look like wet stray cats in a storm; eyeliner running down cheeks, hair matted, shivery lips of worry, etc. Apparently she lost her wallet and passport yesterday, god forbid in one of the countless mud pits. But, thankfully if it is found, the honesty and integrity of Fuji Rockers, and Japanese in general ought to bring it to lost and found for her to gratefully find later. (She did actually!)

Anyway, my pants and socks from Thursday’s torrential downpour are still soggy, though they’ve been hanging up to “dry” in my tent for 2 days now. “Dry” is a bit of a joke out here this year, a long-lost love, a foggy memory of the good ol’ days when sun shined gloriously, brightly, high in the blue skies over Naeba. Maybe Sunday’s forecast of “partly” cloudy will be “partly” right. I think I’m developing gills. Already I have a dorsal fin-sized spider bite on my ankle.

Nonetheless, I cherished the body heat generated at Manu Chao’s special guest appearance at the Crystal Palace last night. This morning I am still riding that anarcho-chaotic mosh pit of love madness, making all the damp, dripping, mud cakes worth it, and granting the remaining two days an optimistic outlook, albeit in less than ideal conditions. I’m still waiting for 5000 person mud fight at White Stage, by the way…

Say, Incubus, think you can make that happen tonight?

Traffic jams from Green Stage after a big show (Manu Chao, here the guilty party) always afford you with an excellent chance to meet some fellow rockers, up close and often awkwardly personal. Today my walking cohort is a wiry, wobbly (whiskey?) fashion design student from Osaka. He admits to being a Fuji Rock virgin, and thus the apparent lack of proper “gear.”

Sporting a red and white striped T, red shorts and boots to match, he is 2/3 of the way there, but he says, “Look at everyone…they know camping style fashions. Me, me, I didn’t know. Next year, I know. I bring fashions.” This remark is directed towards the matching rainsuit/boot/leg warmer colorful combos with foldy chairs conveniently in bags, waterproof iphone and camera cases (none of that grungy hippy ziplock crap), battery-powered pocket blow dryers, etc.  Every now and then you get a stark contrast running through the woods in the form of a foreigner (typically a “whitey,” term used here endearingly, trust me, I am one) who would rather take off everything but their boxer shorts and a smile, slowly growing mud-caked webbed feet as a result of their one-with-the-nature-dude fashion decision (mishap).

Anyway, this fashion designer-in-the-making, whose name I regrettably did not catch, says his favorite phrase is, “Fashion is free.” He goes to explain, “Everyone Japanese knows, no, no, loves fashion. And you know why?” I shrug. “Fashion is free, FREE.” Then he shamelessly self-promotes and says to look for him on page one of this big fashion magazine next month, “Hontouni!” (Really!)

I probably won’t, but it was nice meeting you Mr. Fashion-is-Free. Live from the Friday afternoon commute at the muddy muddy FOOJ!

ROCKERS ONLY. OTHERS: DO NOT CROSS

Yesterday’s pre-fest show opened to a whole lotta acts and even more rain. That didn’t deter most festgoers though, most of whom donned brightly coloured ponchos and for the smart ones – knee high rainboots. Click below to get a feel of what Fuji Rock looks like before the real show begins.

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Beams bag symbolizing unity and strength after the earthquake

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…

Laura and Stacy enjoying themselves at Gypsy Avalon. More pictures of Fuji Rock people on our flickr photo stream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52529288@N03/

No doubt it’s tough to go all day here. LONG walks are expected between stages are expected and the stress of negotiating crowds and mud takes its toll. Yes, everybody needs a quick kip at a multi day music fest, but, in the shows I’ve been to before that usually involves a return to the campsite or a blanket. From what I’ve seen over the past few days, the ability of the Japanese to sleep anywhere in any weather condition or level of noise, is truly insane. On little chairs, scattered in the middle of a shuffling crowd, in pouring rain, in the middle of a blaring One Day as a Lion performance insane.

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More than one band has commented on the tremendous amount of color on display in this Japanese crowd. Beyond the selection of rain gear, the thing that has stood out for me and my fellow staff members is the endless variety and combination of color pattern in rain boots and tights. We’ve all been looking at the tights…

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Here’s Michelle, Becca, Jenny, and Richard having an afternoon chill up in Avalon. Go here to see more images.

Last night’s rains didn’t seem to affect the Thursday crowd. Most people suited up, and quite a few even suited down.

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