Features
Big Crowd For Fuji
Fuji Rock Festival promoter Smash Corporation reports 115,000 people attended this year’s festival July 24-26 in the mountains of Niigata Prefecture, Japan.
Photo: facebook.com/fujirockfestival
About 10,000 revelers came to the free pre-festival party on the night of July 23. About 32,000 attended the first full day, July 24, when the Foo Fighters, featuring Dave Grohl and his now-famous throne, topped the bill.
The crowd swelled to 39,000 on Saturday, which was headlined by Muse. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds wrapped up the festivities Sunday night when 34,000 people showed up.
The attendance showed a marked improvement over last year’s, which was just a little bit more than 100,000, though far short of 2012’s 140,000. The weather was notably fair, and only the pre-fest party was interrupted by showers, despite a typhoon hitting Japan on Saturday. Fortunately for the ticketholders, the storm veered West and didn’t impact the situation.
The only cancellation was by the young English group Catfish and the Bottlemen, which pulled out a few days before the festival citing illness.
No serious mishaps were reported, though there was a good-natured war of words between Dave Grohl and Noel Gallagher initiated when Grohl asked the crowd during his set to tell the former Oasis frontman, “Dave says Hi.”
Two days later, the message was delivered and Gallagher replied, “Who is Dave Grohl?”