So, you got your 3-day pass for the big festival, you’ve planned out your train route and are all set for an awesome 3 day party with your favorite bands. What could be better? Well what if I told you, you could extend that party an extra day, see some surprise sets from aforementioned awesome bands, enjoy a party with the Naeba locals, take in a fireworks show, a traditional Japanese Bon-Odori dance  and it was all for free. Allow me to make the case why you can’t truely experience this great festival if you don’t come up on Thursday.

Rega rocking the preparty

Let’s start off with the main reason you are headed to a ski resport in the middle of the summer: the music. As you can gather, or have experienced for yourself in the past, a music fest the size of Fujirock with 14 stages of acts playing simultaneously, you’re going to have to pick and choose. It certainly pained me last year to have to make some tough choices as what acts to sacrifice to be able to see other despite all the running around I did. It’s just physically impossible to take in all the good music. Why not relieve yourself of some of that stress and enjoy a bonus three or so extras performaces. Last year featured energetic sets from the likes of Turtle Island, Skinny Lister, and Rega. In all three I discovered great new bands that I wouldn’t have seen if I didn’t arrive on the Thursday.

Let’s consider a few more reasons to come on Thursday. If music is your priority and you want to catch as many acts as possible, would you rather be scrambling around at the crack of dawn on Friday morning, battling through hoards of crowds, trying desperately to find a campsite and get your tent set up in time to make it to the 11am set of your favorite band? Or would you rather leisurely wake up at ten, grab some coffee and breakfast with friends and stroll down to to the White Stage to catch your favorite band? I thought so…

Music aside, if you want a decent site to pitch your tent, something on flat ground, and not halfway up the mountainside, you’re going to have to arrive on the Thursday. As I mentioned before, why give yourself the extra stress of braving the crowds  and struggling to find a half-way decent spot to camp when there’s good music to be taken in. The roads will be less busy travelling up, the trains less crowded; why start a music vacation off with extra stress?

So, now that you’ve decided to come up on the Thursday, you’ll be able to party with all the other like-minded Fuji-rockers who know that the best way to make this music 3-day vacation even better is to extend it to a 4th. More music, less stress – what could be better? So what are you waiting for? You’ve already booked off the Friday, what’s one more day? A musical paradise in Naeba awaits.