Back during the days when I was living in a climate that required much less stoicism and bug spray, I used to spend much of my summer vacations looking forward to hitting the Reading Festival, or whatever else I could afford to go to on a student booksellers’ wage. Sadly, those days are gone, and although this is not my first festival experience in Japan – I once spent a weekend at a campsite halfway up a mountain in Wakayama getting bombarded by Gabba and Chip music til 3am every night– it will be my first Fuji Rock. Nor will it be my first festival as a reporter. I had great fun last year covering the Boomtown Fair festival in the UK; the experience was much more pleasant than I had been expecting, and has hopefully set me up nicely for the Fuji Rock preparation.

Chip music with DJ Hally somewhere up a mountain in Wakayama in 2008.

People have asked me what I am expecting of Fuji Rock; what I’m looking forward to doing; which bands I want to see. In terms of expectations, I can more accurately tell you what I am NOT expecting. Building up to the festival has made me rather nostalgic for my younger years, when I could sleep through anything (well, almost – more on that in a the coming paragraphs), and three days without more than a quick cat’s lick under a tap was something I hardly balked at. With those wonderful memories coming back to me then, here are some things I am not expecting.

Mexican Waves. Not your traditional Mexican Wave, though I’m not partial to those either. The Mexican Wave I was subjected to at Ozzfest in 1998 consisted of people grabbing the nearest discarded chicken bone and launching it, spittle-slick, ketchup-doused and dirt-encrusted, up into the air. With Slayer playing on the main stage that year, it was less “Raining Blood” and more “Raining Crud”.

In which a young author glares at the camera during a late 1990s Reading Festival.

I am also not expecting to be kept up at night by the Mexican Vocal Wave, which seemed to make the rounds at every Reading Festival I ever attended. Just when you hoped the alcohol was doing the job of lulling you nicely to sleep, in the distance would come the roar I came to dread. It passed by reasonably quickly, but being subjected to the cacophonous klaxon-call of a nearby bearded and inebriated metaller roaring “BOLLOCKS!” into the early-morning quiet took its toll.

As for things I will be doing, aside from liberal applications of sun-cream and bug spray, I am secretly hoping there will be time between bands to crack out my hula-hoop and have a good gyrate to some music somewhere. The other nice thing I’m planning to do is not having to put up with meth-dealers setting their tent up over the top of your campfire and destroying the vibe by wrecking the circle of awesome you’d set up with your friends. I’m pretty certain that stuff doesn’t go on in Naeba, but if it does, here’s a tip for how to deal with it: wait until the dealer gets arrested, and while he’s gone get your friend to set the dealers’ tent aflame with three-days worth of stubble and an ill-judged decision to blow fire using a camping stove. Fun times.

Pirates Parade at Boomtown 2014

With the massive line-up, a huge number of stages, and plenty of bands to discover, I am looking forward to catching up with Japanese ska-punk legends Kemuri; finding out what’s going down at the Rookie-A-Go-Go stage; and soaking up the atmosphere and meeting interesting people. Festivals for me are no longer just about the music, but also about the people who make them the special occasions they become. During the weekend I’m hoping to be getting a better idea of the kinds of people who come to Fuji Rock, tracking down good vegetarian food, and enjoying a weekend of great music up in the mountains. If you have any good hints to pass on, places to recommend searching out, or know of any good veggie food, do please let me know.