[VIP on the First Day Only] I Went to EDC JAPAN 2019! [What Did You Think? Satisfied or Dissatisfied?]

The major festival that could be called a spring tradition, EDC JAPAN, returned to Makuhari in 2019.

EDC JAPAN began three years ago and is starting to feel established, and this time it reportedly drew 80,000 people over two days.

This year was also my first experience of EDC JAPAN, so I would like to report with plenty of personal opinions and sometimes without mincing words.

My First Major Domestic Festival in a While

I have been involved with dance music for over twenty years and have attended many events in Japan and abroad, but this was my first major domestic festival in three years.

In the meantime, I also attended overseas festivals such as Amsterdam's ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event) and ABGT (Above & Beyond Group Therapy), so I can say that domestic festivals have their own particular atmosphere and feel.

In that sense, it felt a little nostalgic.

I Will Always Attend EDM Festivals as VIP from Now On

There are clear reasons for this.

Put simply, VIP resolves the frustrating experiences I have had at domestic festivals.

To phrase it more positively, the point is that ‘you can focus on enjoying the festival and the music themselves’.

I have never felt comfortable with the organization of domestic festivals in recent years. To put it mildly, the reasons are ‘sloppy management’ and ‘the poor manners of most of the audience’.

At a certain festival often mentioned alongside EDC JAPAN, I once experienced fights breaking out nearby on the main floor, and even suffered physical injury, although fortunately it was minor (haha).

I have also gone to the toilet midway through, only to find access to the floor restricted, leaving me stranded and unable to rejoin friends.

But that is probably unavoidable with a general admission ticket.

Part of the service is, effectively, asking you to share facilities with huge numbers of people.

Frankly, the people whose main attraction is the main stage genre, EDM, at this point are the late majority.

Put simply, they are poorly informed people who did not understand EDM's appeal when it was hot, so sharing the same space with them is hard to call a wise choice.

How Comfortable Neon Garden Was!

My destination was ‘Neon Garden’, in other words, the techno and tech house floor.

You can see from browsing this blog's past articles that techno and tech house are at the forefront of the global scene and will probably become a trend in Japan's scene too.

In other words, although few in number, audiences with a keen sensitivity to music and content who understood that trend were gathered there, creating a really good atmosphere.

Of Course, I Listened to Other Genres Too

Kinetic Field (the main stage) and Cosmic Beach (the secondary stage centered on bass music) were places I visited too.

Although they cannot simply be lumped together, both are EDM.

I did not experience any particularly moving moments, though.

EDM Has Become an Old-Hits Singalong

I too was once passionately involved with EDM, peaking around 2013–2014.

I began moving away from the genre around the second half of 2015, but I vividly remember its sound and atmosphere at their prime.

So I listened to live EDM again after a long time, and ‘It hasn't changed at all since then, haha’ was the only impression that remained.

This is still misunderstood, but EDM is really a show in which artists (composers) present their own tracks, in the same category as a rock show.

Since their own tracks are the main attraction, it is inevitable that things develop similarly for years. But mashups offered a different development, and EDM artists' appeal included the freshness those could provide.

Yet the material for these mashups is all nostalgic hit songs.

Incidentally, much of the material used for these mashups was AVICII and CALVIN HARRIS, which also contributed to the lack of a sense of the future.

Conclusion: Maybe This Is Fine as It Is, Haha

But I think maybe this is fine as it is.

It's not exactly a case of "leave it to the specialists," but demanding too much quality from something outside its native home is misguided. It is like the insurmountable gap between Japanese food eaten abroad and Japanese food eaten in Japan.

And just as period dramas have a certain audience, since many people are enjoying it, perhaps that is fine. There is no forward-looking spirit there, though.

Japan has a declining birthrate and aging population, and, for some reason, many people in Japanese dance music culture decide to ‘retire’, unlike overseas, so I think continuing along this path as far as it can go is probably enough.

This applies beyond this event, but comparing domestic festivals and events with other countries or questioning the quality of events probably does not mean much.

Summary

That was my first EDC JAPAN experience, and my impression is as follows.

Personally, it has no value beyond simply ‘a festival has come to the neighborhood!’.

I do not know whether I will go again, including to other festivals, but if I feel ‘well, it is nearby, so I might as well go’, then perhaps I will.

Use Resale Sites If You Want Cheaper Festival Tickets

For Ultra Japan, EDC JAPAN, and other popular festivals, ticket resale sites are another option for buying cheaply.

I introduce recommended sites in the article below, so feel free to use it as a reference.

[Ultra Japan, EDC JAPAN, and More] Three Ticket Trading Sites for “I Want to Go After All,” “I Can No Longer Go,” and “I Want to Go Cheaply” [Use at Your Own Risk] September 10, 2019

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