As the tree branch gateway to the Field of Heaven finally takes shape, the boardwalk is laid, and the huge glowing starbursts are hung to illuminate the long walk through deep forest, rain sprinkles on the prayer flags waving and beckoning a good musical harvest this year at Fuji Rock Festival.

Stage hands are busy screwing together scaffolding, roped up and hanging huge lights, plugging in speakers and sound checking to ensure that the audio and visual display are of the highest quality, fined-tuned as always, a standard to be expected from one of the world’s finest music festivals.

Artists on summer tours are busy playing their guts out, sleeping on airplanes and tour buses, giving their hearts and souls for fans daily, and making the same long trek into the Niigata highlands as us, many for the first time, and just as excited, I’m sure.

We at the English version of Fuji Rock Express are stoked and chomping at the bit to head out into the mountain wilderness for the long weekend of music and community that thrives in Naeba for these three special days.

We arrive at the festival grounds tomorrow afternoon, just a few hours before the crowds, and will thereafter be bringing you up-to-the-minute updates live from the fest in its entirety.

Look out for us at the fest and come say “Hi.” We will be sporting really lame STAFF T-shirts and probably wearing our official Fuji Rock Festival raincoats, too; nice digs considering, provided annually by Columbia sportswear.

From music reviews to atmosphere, artwork and cuisine, we will be sleep-deprived and exhausted to show-and-tell you all a thorough glimpse of what you are missing if you are not in attendance! (We’ll cover 150 of the performing acts as well as noteworthy vibe and enticing grub bits entirely for your reading pleasure.)

I know not everyone can afford the time or money to make it out to Fuji Rock and that is totally OK. But that just means that our coverage is going to make you damn jealous that you aren’t rocking out with us. If you are cool with that, stay tuned here to the new and improved English version 2.0 at Fuji Rock Express!