Summer Festivals

Entrance gate of Fuji Rock Festival '10

My favourite festival Asagiri Jam (the pic taken in 2007)

Now summer is over. This summer was boiling, extremely hot and killed a lot of people. It was such a hell but I can't complain. I'd say, my hometown Yokohama, a suburb of Tokyo, is still hot this week like 30 celsius degree in daytime. But it was 35 degree last week. So now everybody feels like autumn has come.

Anyway, an extremely short summer festival season is now over in Japan. I mean, two major and only summer festivals for international acts took place within only two weeks: Fuji Rock Festival and Summer Sonic. There are newer and smaller international music festivals that take place before/after summer, which is great. However, Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic are far more influential to the Japanese market.

Here is a list of key festivals that have international acts:

• Fuji Rock Festival: http://www.smash-uk.com/frf10/
• Summer Sonic: http://www.summersonic.com/2010/english/
• Asagiri Jam: http://www.smash-jpn.com/asagiri/ (Japanese only)
• Punk Spring: http://www.punkspring.com/10/english/index.html
• Loud Park: http://www.loudpark.com/10/english/
• Metamorphose: http://www.metamo.info/ (Japanese only)
• Wire:  http://www.wireweb.jp/ (Japanese only)
• Taico Club: http://www.taicoclub.com/ (Japanese only)

That's it? Yes, that's it. Japan, that has the second biggest music market in the world, has that few festivals. The number of festivals is I think actually reasonable...or some people might feel it's too many. The international market in Japan is tiny. Domestic music occupies nearly 80% of the popular music market there. For international acts, regarding cost and energy to come and play in Japan, they won't consider to fly to this island country in the far east Asia say 5 times a year. Thus, it's like "less demand and less supply" strikes a good balance to keep the market working, which is a shame for me as a big fan of international indie music.
We still have some fesitivals due to happen soon but the summer is over in any way. Now it's time to welcome bands playing their headlining shows in Japan.