History - 2007
Fact file
Dates
July 27, 28, 29, 2007
Place
Naeba Skii Resort, Niigata
Figures
Audience
127,000 (cumulative)
Campers
14,000
Tents
7,000
What happened?
The 11th Fuji Rock Festival presented another stunning line-up.
Friday saw The Cure's triumphant return to Japan after 23 years, Groove Armada sailed into the White stage and proved they are a No 1 dance act, whilst Muse sounded like they brought Wembley Stadium to the Green stage.
Saturday had The Beastie Boys headline for the first time, after Iggy & The Stooges invited the whole audience on stage and Scafull King's reunion mirrored that excitement over on the White stage. The Red Marquee Dance tent was 'hands in da air' till dawn with new comers Justice and Simian Mobile Disco, who are now household names - they rocked till well past sunrise into Sunday morning.
The Chemical Brothers, a Fuji Rock favourite, stunned the crowd with their most visual and aural set to date and Tokyo Ska Paradise created a great atmosphere with a typical, high energy performance. Earlier in the day new artist Mika's first visit to Japan excited the Green Stage audience with a
magical show, bringing happy smiling faces to everyone. He promised to return.
Every year there are more and more applications from hungry newbies to play the Rookie A Go-Go stage for unsigned bands. Sambomaster, who started in 2003 at the Rookie A Go-Go, have every year have moved up a notch via the Red Marquee and White Stage, to this year playing the holy Green Stage. So when the Rookie A Go-Go stage opened, the slogan for the unsigned band competition winners bands was 'make it to Green Stage!'
Meanwhile away from the madding crowd, across the lofty alpine mountains over the festival, runs the Dragondola, the longest Gondola mountain to mountain transporter. We had a record number of over 10,000 fans escape to the top of the mountain to view the festival below and the popular Family tour packages now feature official 'family only' packages.
Below in The Stoned Circle, a new community area featuring stalls selling their wares and a chill out café, artisans joined together to make and play weird and wonderful percussion instruments till they could drum no more. Another amusement was the Fuji Rock rice crackers, after the previous years success of Fuji Rock biscuits, made in Niigata, they sold out straight a way!
Also selling well was the Fuji Collection of an official line of t-shirts, now in its 3rd year, with part of the profit donated to Strummerville, the charity set up by Joe Strummer's family and friends to support young musicians.
Finally the Fuji Rock Festival again supported Global Cool, the world environmental foundation set up to tackle global warming, the bio diesel electricity used for a long time in the Avalon Field was introduced to other areas such as Field of Heaven and on the board walk mini stage and Fuji Rock has started a trial to recycle plastic bottles from the Festival and create Fuji Rock jackets for next year...
Timetable 2007
| GREEN STAGE | ||
| 7/27 (FRI) | 7/28 (SAT) | 7/29 (SUN) |
| sambomaster | JULIETTE & THE LICKS | SOIL & "PIMP" SESSIONS |
| YELLOWCARD | MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK | FERMIN MUGURUZA |
| KEMURI | !!! (chk chk chk) | MIKA |
| JARVIS COCKER | KULA SHAKER | JOSS STONE |
| KINGS OF LEON | KAISER CHIEFS | HAPPY MONDAYS |
| MUSE | IGGY & THE STOOGES | TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA |
| THE CURE | BEASTIE BOYS | THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS |
| WHITE STAGE | ||
| 7/27 (FRI) | 7/28 (SAT) | 7/29 (SUN) |
| AKAINU | HiGE | DEERHOOF |
| the band apart | MAE | ELECTRELANE |
| STEVIE SALAS COLORCODE | SCAFULL KING | toe |
| YOUR SONG IS GOOD | LESS THAN JAKE | THE SHINS |
| MONEY MARK | THE ATARIS | clammbon |
| THE JOHN BUTLER TRIO | OMAR RODRIGUEZ LOPEZ GROUP | BATTLES |
| GROOVE ARMADA | ASH | V∞REDOMS |
| BOOM BOOM SATELLITES | JUNO REACTOR | |
| RED MARQUEE | ||
| 7/27 (FRI) | 7/28 (SAT) | 7/29 (SUN) |
| carrozzeria FRIDAY REVIEW | carrozzeria SATURDAY REVIEW | carrozzeria SUNDAY REVIEW |
| HELLOGOODBYE | MONORAL | PAUL STEEL |
| 10-FEET | FRONTIER BACKYARD | GUITAR WOLF |
| BLONDE REDHEAD | THE BIRD AND THE BEE | THE WOMBATS |
| THE ALBUM LEAF (*CANCELLED) | SANDI THOM | THE PIGEON DETECTIVES |
| fujifabric | SWITCHES | THE ANSWER |
| MUMM-RA | SHONEN KNIFE | THE BACK HORN |
| OCEAN COLOUR SCENE | LILY ALLEN | PETER BJORN AND JOHN |
| FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE | G.LOVE&SPECIAL SAUCE | FRICTION (ЯECK - Tatsuya Nakamura) |
| ー | KENICHI ASAI | CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH |
| PLANET GROOVE | TRIBAL CIRCUS | SUNDAY SESSION |
| RATATAT | SPACE COWBOY | THE WHIP |
| DJ CHERNOBYL | SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO | KIREEK |
| HIFANA | TAKKYU ISHINO | CHROMEO |
| A-TRAK | JUSTICE | SURKIN |
| dj KENTARO | TEENAGE BAD GIRL | SUN PAULO |
| THA BLUE HERB | DEXPISTOLS | metalmouse |
| DJ NORI | ー | ROVO |
| FIELD OF HEAVEN | ||
| 7/27 (FRI) | 7/28 (SAT) | 7/29 (SUN) |
| SHIBUSASHIRAZU ORCHESTRA | Panorama Steel Orchestra | HEATWAVE |
| COOL WISE MEN | SHIONE YUKAWA | THE KING TONES with Jimmy and the Vivids |
| GOMA&JUNGLE RHYTHM SECTION | DUB AINU BAND | SEIKATSU CIRCUS |
| RAILROAD EARTH | DACHAMBO | JONATHAN RICHMAN |
| cutman-booche | GRACE POTTER AND THE NOCTURNALS | J.A.M |
| YO LA TENGO | Gov't Mule | SOUL FLOWER UNION |
| ー | ー | HEAVEN'S JAM |
| ORANGE COURT | ||
| 7/27 (FRI) | 7/28 (SAT) | 7/29 (SUN) |
| NETSUZOU TO GANSAKU | MADAME GUITAR NAGAMI JUN | OMOKAGE LUCKY HALL |
| MIYUKI HATAKEYAMA with ASA-CHANG & BLUE HATS | ELANA JAMES AND HOT CLUB OF COWTOWN | PURI |
| SENTIMENTAL CITY ROMANCE | ATSUKI KIMURA & FUSANOSUKE KONDO | Marva Whitney with Osaka Monaurail |
| akiko / Moreno-Domenico-Kassin+2 | kotobuki | HIROMI UEHARA - HIROMI'S SONICBLOOM |
| TERUMASA HINO QUINTETTO | FEIST | SALSA SWINGOZA |
| PE'Z | iLL | JAKE SHIMABUKURO |
| - | RRIICCEE music Vincent Gallo | FERMIN MUGURUZA |
| All Night Fuji | ||
| TOMCRAFT | ||
| Dr.SHINGO | ||
| TIM DELUXE | ||
| SHINICHI OSAWA (MONDO GROSSO) | ||
| DAMIAN LAZARUS | ||
| Audiojack | ||
| DJ TSUYOSHI a.k.a NUMANOID | ||
| Gypsy Avalon | ||
| 7/27 (FRI) | 7/28 (SAT) | 7/29 (SUN) |
| NGO appeal: Global Warming/Natural energy resources | NGO appeal: Poverty | NGO appeal: Save Shimokitazawa with Flower Company |
| MISAKO KOTANI | NUMB | YoLeYoLe |
| KOUSUKE ATARI | YUSUKE OYA (Polaris/ohana) | GOOD LUCK HEIWA |
| AYANO TSUJI | CHIKA TAKAHASHI | bobin |
| MAKOTO SAITO | Upendra and friends | JONAH MATRANGA |
| ELANA JAMES AND HOT CLUB OF COWTOWN | GABBY & LOPEZ | Yae |
| THE PEACE IN LOVE PERCUSSIONS | PURI | OUGON NO TE |
| - | SIBERIAN NEWSPAPER | mmonocism with TAKASHI NUMAZAWA |
| - | Shima&ShikouDUO | - |
| THE PALACE OF WONDER | ||
| 7/27 (FRI) | 7/28 (SAT) | 7/29 (SUN) |
| ROOKIE A GO-GO | ||
| THE BAWDIES | BO-PEEP | group_inou |
| a flood of circle | DOIMOI | Cypress Ueno & Robert Yoshino |
| The Jerry of Beat's | avengers in sci fi | GELLERS |
| Nikujaga | soul dimension | mass of the fermenting dregs |
| THE SPYZZ | KINGDOM AFROCKS | LITE |
| TENT | ||
| NEVER MIND | IN BUSINESS | LET'S PARTY |
| SIM CASS | JIM WEST | DJG |
| Druweed / Masaya Hayashi | Daisuke Kuroda | JONATHAN RICHMAN |
| Masaki Mori (EGO-WRAPPIN') | Osaka=Monaurail feat. Marva Whitney | LINCOLN (SOS / Deep Funk) |
| Stranger Cole with Dreamlets | DJ JIN | Kwabana Lindsay's "Fiddler on the Rope" |
| KING NABE (CLUB SKA) | MURO | Little fats & Swingin' hot shot party + futari nori |
| - | Osaka=Monaurail | Takeshi Kubota |
| EDDIE"TAN TAN"THORNTON WITH COOL WISE MEN | IN BUSINESS DJs | The Space Cowboy |
| - | - | JVC FORCE feat. JVC Cheers |
| Satoru Fujii a.k.a Satol F. (Caribbean Dandy) | - | SIM CASS |
| ARENA | ||
| Infernal Varanne's Globe of Death | ||
| NAEBA SHOKUDO | ||
| 7/27 (FRI) | 7/28 (SAT) | 7/29 (SUN) |
| KAN MIKAMI | DEERHOOF | SKUNK BROTHERS with IKUOKO HARADA |
| ASA-CHANG & Junray | JONATHAN RICHMAN | GOOD LUCK HEIWA |
| humbert humbert | cutman-booche | Hands of Creation |
| Illreme | Double Famous | AKAINU |
| DAY DREAMING AND SILENT BEEZE | ||
| 7/27 (FRI) | 7/28 (SAT) | 7/29 (SUN) |
| ECCY | NUMANOID aka TSUYOSHI | KOTANI KAZUYA |
| RUB-A-DUB MARKET feat. HIBIKI SAKURAI | DEXPISTOLS | AUDIO PLANTER SOUNDSYSTEM aka DAISUKE MATSUSAKA |
| SHIGE(WRENCH) | HITOSHI OHISHI | YODA |
| ALTZ | CAPTAIN FUNK | SEI-NO-ISE |
| MOKUDO TEI | ||
| 7/27 (FRI) | 7/28 (SAT) | 7/29 (SUN) |
| Upendra&Friends | NANAO TABITO | Double Famous |
| cutman-booche | SHIMIZU GEININ | Upendra&Friends |