From far and wide, overseas visitors flock to Fuji Rock

Japan Times

3 days ago

The 2025 edition of Fuji Rock Festival, held from July 25 to 27 at Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture, marked a high point for Japan's premier music event. Three-day passes and Saturday tickets sold out two weeks before the gates opened, and according to festival organizer Smash, ticket sales were the strongest they have been since the COVID-19 pandemic — a testament to renewed enthusiasm for live music in Japan.
Part of that momentum came from a growing number of overseas visitors. Organizers say international ticket buyers accounted for roughly 10% of all sales, but they believe the real figure could be higher, supposing many foreign attendees purchased tickets through friends or acquaintances in Japan. Tickets were sold in 60 countries this year, with the majority going to fans in Taiwan, South Korea and China. These developments are in line with a report recently released by the World Economic Forum, which found that tourists traveling for experiences, such as attending music festivals and sporting events, is growing significantly.
Qingzhe Chen, who goes by Jimmy, is a Fuji Rock regular currently living in Michigan, and he has witnessed the growing international presence firsthand. Chen, 39, is the moderator of a Fuji Rock group on Reddit and uses it to coordinate informal meetups, particularly for people coming from overseas. Each year, he organizes a group dinner, inviting newcomers and returnees to gather and connect ahead of the three-day festival. 'There are a handful of people who come who live in Japan, but there are a lot of people from (places like) Southeast Asia and Australia,' he says.
So what makes Fuji Rock so appealing to overseas visitors?
For Chen, it's the festival's chilled and civil atmosphere. 'Everybody is very orderly,' he says. 'My friend remarked to me last night that he'd never been to a concert where he wasn't constantly being bumped into, pushed, shoved or having people trying to get to the front. It's just relaxing to be (at Fuji Rock).'
Fuji Rock regular Qingzhe Chen moderates a Fuji Rock group on Reddit and uses it to coordinate informal meetups, particularly for people coming from overseas. |
Courtesy of Qingzhe Chen
Each year, Chen organizes a group dinner, inviting newcomers and returnees to gather and connect ahead of the three-day festival. |
Courtesy of Qingzhe Chen
Many attendees traveled to Japan specifically for the festival, and some, like Michael Hall, 33, from North Carolina, made the trip this year for one artist in particular — legendary singer-songwriter and producer Tatsuro Yamashita. 'I saw that Yamashita was playing at the festival, and it's very hard to get concert tickets to see him normally, even if you're willing to travel to Japan,' Hall says. 'So I decided to go. He's an artist I wanted to see at some point in my life.'
David Levy, 46, from California, says that as a regular concertgoer, he had known about Fuji Rock for a long time, and he came to the festival for the first time last year with his teenage daughter. 'The event is kind of perfect as a festival, so it doesn't matter who's playing,' he says. 'Everyone is (at Fuji Rock) to enjoy the music, to have fun, to see some art, to bring their kid to play in a river.... Fuji Rock feels uniquely like the festival is the thing.'
Alex Emexezidis, 35, who traveled from Thessaloniki, Greece, to see Yamashita perform, was also drawn to the festival's variety of musical genres. 'I already knew some of the bands, but many, including some headliners, were new to me, so I was exposed to some good new music.' He also appreciated the event's connection to nature. 'It was a lot of families and people enjoying the music — not many 'posers' that would be there only for Instagram,' he says.
Emexezidis experienced some frustrations, too. 'The walking distances were huge,' he says. 'Everything felt like a faraway trip.' He also found the food area lacking in shade and places to sit, and pointed out the difficulty of maintaining hygiene while camping: 'I felt like the festival could not handle that many people... with long lines for toilets and showers.' In fact, Emexezidis chose to leave the festival before Yamashita's set on Saturday night, put off by the limited hygiene facilities and uncomfortable camping conditions.
Fuji Rock returnee Charmaine Mak, 35, from Singapore, faced a different type of challenge: attending the festival by herself. 'I told myself, what's the worst that can happen? Just have some faith and do this alone. ... I didn't want to regret (not going),' she says. Her solo trip turned out to be a rewarding one — she even met OK Go frontman Damian Kulash, an artist she had admired since her youth. What made the experience even more enjoyable was how safe and welcoming the festival felt, especially for solo female attendees. Thoughtful touches, like a campsite area reserved specifically for women, helped her feel more at ease throughout the weekend.
Fuji Rock returnee Charmaine Mak met OK Go frontman Damian Kulash, an artist she had admired since her youth, during her first solo outing at festival. |
Courtesy of Charmaine Mak
Vritri Krishna, 18, from Bengaluru, India, echoes that sense of safety. 'Even (coming from) a very large and very safe city like Bengaluru, being at a place where I could go out by myself at two or three in the morning, dance in a very crowded area with some fairly drunk people at times, and then just be fine with nothing horrible happening to me was really freeing. It's one of the reasons that made me love Fuji Rock as an experience a lot more.'
Traveling from Jakarta, Michael Geoffrey, 29, was surprised by the sheer size of the festival. 'I really did not expect a festival to take up such a large area,' he says. 'There's so much going on.' One day, he clocked over 42,000 steps. 'That was probably the most I've walked in a day.' He especially enjoyed the smaller performances throughout the grounds: 'You see local comedians or someone doing a dance or a performative art show... I find that those little things really add up.'
Even with some logistical bumps, international fans agree Fuji Rock offers something more than just music: an atmosphere of joy, discovery and shared experience set against Japan's natural beauty. For many, it wasn't just a stop on their trip; it was the trip.