Niigata Festival Calendar [2026]: Music Festivals and Outdoor Events Overview

Speaking of Fuji Rock, it’s one of Japan’s three major music festivals. It’s a large outdoor rock festival that draws over 100,000 attendees across three days every year. The venue is Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture. You can enjoy a wide range of musical genres across stages of various sizes, and at night there are all-night DJ events—truly a festival where you can immerse yourself in music. Plus, just being at a festival set in the great outdoors is enough to get your heart racing. If you’re a music fan, it’s a festival you should attend at least once.

Around the time of the Meiji Restoration, the Nagaoka Domain, which had been given one hundred bags of rice, chose not to consume them—since they would be gone immediately—but instead sold the rice and used the proceeds to build a school, successfully cultivating human talent. Inspired by this “Spirit of One Hundred Bags of Rice,” we aim to create a future-oriented festival—the most comfortable festival in Japan. Enjoy the ultimate two days of fireworks, food, and music.

This event, launched with the hope of brightening and energizing Niigata, is a jazz festival held at venues such as restaurants, jazz cafes, and halls throughout Niigata City. Influenced by the postwar occupation forces and the American Cultural Center, Niigata has long had strong ties to jazz. On this day, the city becomes a “music theme park,” offering a day of enjoyment for everyone from adults to children.

“Good music for delicious food.” Locals are once again feeling the greatness of their hometown and passing it on to the next generation. Visitors from outside the prefecture experience Nagaoka’s charm, potential, and warmth through this festival.

Northern19, a three-piece rock band from Niigata Prefecture, has been hosting this indoor festival in their hometown since 2014. Known for songs that epitomize the melodic hardcore vibe, Northern19 appears on festival lineups across the country every year. Starting with its fourth edition in 2017, their Tokirock event adopted a circuit format held across two venues.