Just back from Fuji Rock. It rocked.
The cleanest and most well organised Festival I've ever been to...
Lets start with the people. Prepared is the word that springs to mind... people bought more kit and camping gear and picnic tables and seats and mats and waterproofs then I've ever seen in my life. In all fairness is rained pretty hard. My totally SHIT american apparel 'waterproof' was about as much use as a paper towel. Griffin gear next time.
So yeah - they bring loads of stuff, sit around and eat a lot of food (food is way bigger then booze at Fuji - weird) and generally look pretty clean, together and cute.
My half Japanese friend Tiger was trying to pull off a similar look but I don't think she quite had it dialed...
Another thing to remember when festivaling in Japan is that there's only a handful of big ones in the country - and despite the extremely organised manner of the event, the slight chaos that no doubt comes with herding thousands of people around a muddy music and beer fest, is somewhat tiring for some... people sleep all over the shop. I found this lot napping through the Melvins... check the girl in the face mask too... clean clean clean. Japan hearts clean.
So on from the people - the site. Fuji is located in a ski resort which is pretty stunning, nestled in a valley half way up a mountain its got to be one of the most beautiful festival sites I've ever seen. The grounds are about 3 miles long, World of food at one end, main stage in the middle, hippy weirdo wonderland on from there and right at the end a Dog adventure land for all your doggy festival friends. Amazing.
They had massive visuals on the cliffs sides that I could of watched for hours (mmm sparkly - photo doesn't really do it justice) - and eye balls watching you in the trees.
(this big rabbit was my friend)
There was also NO rubbish anywhere. Everyone seperates and recycles everything and carries portable ash trays for smoking. You are also not allowed to smoke and walk, take photos of bands or carry an umbrella and NO one did. Even the toilets were pretty shiny.
Band wise there's a pretty eclectic mix up of a line up... saw some amazingly awful Japanese popstar caterwalling on the mainstage one night which was worth the journey alone... also pretty impressed by wizard men Melvins (best two drummers in the world ever), Dinosaur Jr. - who looked just like the rad dads they are, and finally Weezer who totally woo-ed the crowd by chatting away in pretty good Japanese. I recon he's had a Japanese girlfriend or two along the way and judging by the crowd could of taken home a handful more had he wished.
The last band that deserve a mention are Basement Jaxx who kindly hooked us up with passes for the festival... They put on an awesome set to shut the festival down on the last night... recruiting Fuji's finest dancers to join them on the stage.
It's great organised chaos.. on stage we had two hot go go girls that we met in the bar the night before, a few giant lobsters, some wierd green alien things and finally Tiger and her little sister, dressed up in monkey suits dancing like mongoloids on acid. Very fear and loathing.
This is Felix giving artistic direction to a giant lobster minutes before the show. Dance lobster dance.
Anyway... so that was the official festival. Just outside the main gates was the amazing Palace of Wonder land which opened until 6 am and was mostly where people went to 'go a bit mental' - which Japanese people
do do, they just don't do it as often as us noisy drunken Brits.
It was fun in there. We mostly hung out at the Milk Casino bar (where randomly Jon from Kinfolk was working), where I drank Tequila and made friend with weirdos whilst Tiger fought of marriage proposals from keen Japanese suitors, loving the half-fu vibe. Things generally got a bit sideways in there hence the blurry photos. But it was good. I think.
So yep. That was it. We're back in Tokyo for one more night now so off to the Fuji afterparty at some place called the Warehouse... no sleep till Virgin Flight 908 11am tomorrow morning. Ho hum.
