Fuji Rock Festival Cancels Live Streams

Fuji Rock Festival has today announced that they will not livestream their 2023 event. 

Taking to social media to let fans know, the festival wrote the following statement that has been translated from Japanese. "<Notice> We will no longer have Youtube live streams in 2023. I believe many of you were able to come and enjoy the live broadcast, but please enjoy the real experience at this year's Fuji Rock 🙌 A summer vacation with music in the nature will surely be an unforgettable memory." 

Fuji Rock Festival introduced a live stream in 2019, exclusively with YouTube, as an answer to Covid-19 making festival experiences near impossible.

One punter commented on the festival announcement and said, "I wanted to go the last 3 years, but thanks to COVID have been unable to, thank you for running the live streams! Always made me feel like I was there a little. I will be attending in 2023!! Lets go!!"

The festival did not list a concrete reason as to why they have cancelled the live stream for this year's event (and possibly future events), however, they did allude to wanting people to come and experience the festival in person. Tickets for the event have yet to sell out.  

Many fans were accepting of the decision commenting in agreeance with the post, but others were not so happy arguing that there were other solutions rather than scrapping the live-streaming option. Some recommended that Fuji Rock should keep the live stream but place it behind a paywall, so keen viewers can access the stream for a small price. 

One commenter wrote (translated from Japanese), "I think there are many people who can't go to the venue for various reasons. I know there are people who would like to watch just a little bit on YouTube, how about it? Can't we have paid streaming?"

Many continued to compare the festival to Coachella, who live-streamed their entire event this year, par from Frank Ocean.

With its first year kicking off in 1997, Fuji Rock Festival has become one of the largest festivals in the world, taking place at the Naeba Ski Resort in Yuzawa, Niigata — a port city on Japan’s main island. It's known to host some of the incredibly relevant artists, often following that of Coachella, with similar artists featuring on both lineups. This year's event takes place on July 28-30 and includes a lineup featuring The Strokes, Foo Fighters, Lizzo, Weezer, Lewis Capaldi, Alannis Morissette and more. 

Tickets for this year's event can be found here.