Japan’s Fuji Rock Bans Alcohol Sales To Prevent Spread Of COVID-19

Skrillex and Yoshiki at Fuji Rock Japan
Courtesy Prime PR – Skrillex and Yoshiki at Fuji Rock Japan
Skrillex joins X Japan’s Yoshiki at Fuji Rock in 2018.

The Fuji Rock Festival, which is scheduled to take place in the mountains of north-central Japan Aug. 20-22, announced last week that in line with restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 it would ban the sale and possession of alcohol on the festival grounds. 

Fuji is the premier annual rock festival featuring foreign acts, which usually account for at least a third of the 200 artists that appear, but this year all the acts will be Japan-based. 
On Aug. 3, the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper ran an interview with Tomoaki Ishitobi, an executive at Smash Inc., the company that organizes Fuji. 
Ishitobi outlined the measures that will be in place to fight the infection. Only about half the normal number of attendees will be allowed, masks will be required, and loud conversation and singalongs will be prohibited. In addition, audiences will be broken up into smaller groups to enhance social distancing. 
Though Ishitobi admits that these measures, along with the alcohol ban, will diminish somewhat the usual festival experience associated with Fuji, he says it is imperative that Smash hold the event this year as a show of continuity. 
It’s important, he said, to make a clear statement that Fuji Rock is here to stay. He points to the fact that 80% of those who bought tickets for the 2020 Fuji Rock, which did not take place, did not demand refunds and instead kept them to be used for this year’s event. 
In addition, Fuji Rock provides vital economic stimulus to the town where it takes place, and local businesses have insisted they will cooperate in any way possible to make it happen this year, even though most summer rock festivals in Japan have been cancelled for the second year in a row. 
In line with this wish, the local tourism office had planned to carry out a mass vaccination of business operators that would be completed just prior to the festival. About 1,700 persons had applied for the vaccine, but then Japan’s health ministry informed the business association that it did not have sufficient supply of vaccine to finish both injections by the time specified. Consequently, the association went to its prefectural government to see if it could secure vaccines in time for the festival, and apparently there will be enough vaccines to immunize “high risk individuals,” meaning older people and those with underlying health conditions. Beyond that, business people who will be working directly with the festival will receive priority for vaccines.