On everybody who is anybody’s mind now is WHO the heck is going to open up the festival tonight with an explosive performance (not just because there are fireworks) for the locals and anyone who made the trek to the Red Tent – you don’t need a wristband for the Thursday night intro party; and if you don’t know, now you know. If you start driving from Tokyo now you will just make it in time!

My picks for the night, totally guessing here as there are usually three or four surprise acts, are as follows:

1) The young and folky chant rockers Local Natives, for their genki youthfulness and vitality factor

2) Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba, since last year Onda Vaga had a very similar FULL festival schedule, playing around 6 official shows on various stages, and because they already came THIS far – from Mali!

3) Very Be Careful OR Soil and Pimp Sessions, because they are both energetic styles involving horn power, and heck, one “pimp” is actually called “The Agitator”

4) Turtle Island. Yes, this one is a long shot I know, but check out their live footage on youtube and you too will know the strength in numbers and utter chaos present when a punk rock singer teams up with Japanese taiko drummers and an entire entourage of noise ballistics. And, because I simply cannot come to grips with the fact that their ONLY other scheduled spot is at 10:30 in the freaking AM on Sunday morning way back on the Orange Court…Really?!

Strolling around as setup and sound-checks continue I can already smell a smorgasbord of ethnic foods as vendors cook up scrumptious eats from Ethiopia, Thailand, England (pies) and more.

Wandering around the grounds of Green as wide-eyed volunteers coming to Fuji Rock for the first time get their tour, a pleasant excitement washes over me, like the calm before the storm. And here, I am not talking about the weather.

OK, so here is the ACTUAL lineup… I got one right! TURTLE ISLAND BABY YEAH!

Friday
The forecast seems to be clouds, clouds and a spot of rain. If you’re an early riser, you may catch some sun in the morning around 10am but for the rest of us, the skies will be grey. Most rain looks like it will fall in the afternoon, with a predicted 11mm between 3pm to 9pm, but there’s likely to be showers throughout the day. Temperature looks like it will hover around 15˙C.

Saturday
Early morning risers will be able to enjoy the mountains wreathed in mist (for those of us not going to the pre-fest opening party). But then the sun looks like it will be coming out for most of the day, with less than 10% cloud cover for most of the day. The temperature will stay much the same, remaining at around 16˙C for most of the day. There’s likely to be a spot of rain in the late afternoon and evening but nothing as heavy as Friday.

Sunday
Sunday appears to be much the same as Saturday, but with the rain starting a little early and less clouds throughout the day. In the evening, there looks to be a far higher concentration of clouds but no predicted rain. Hopefully that proves true and the festival will be able to finish on a dry note.

Of course, this is all predictions and the true weather could be better or worse. But so far, it looks like perfect mild conditions, not too sunny and not too rainy. We’ll find out in the 3 days ahead!