List of Rock Festivals Nationwide [2026]

The New Year Rock Festival, a historic New Year’s Eve rock fest that began in 1973, has long been popular. With the slogan “Kōhaku isn’t the only show in town,” it has been cherished as a coveted event for rock bands. After organizer Yuya Uchida passed away, HIRØ from Kaiki Gesshoku took over as producer and the festival will be newly held. And in 2020, it will take the form of its first-ever audience-free, live-streamed New Year’s Eve concert—an unprecedented format that’s shaping up to be an event no one could have predicted.

RADIO CRAZY, known as “RediKure,” is the annual year-end rock blowout. Held over two days at INTEX Osaka, RediKure features multiple stages where many popular artists deliver performances worthy of closing out the year.

It’s a music festival organized by FM Fukui that has been running since 2006. Numerous artists who are gaining nationwide attention perform there. For many of them, this event often marks their first live show in Fukui.

College of Rock is a music event held twice a year—in summer and winter—in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture. As the name suggests, it’s a festival planned and run mainly by college students and other young people. In summer, it takes place on an outdoor stage set up at the Ishigami-no-Oka Museum, and in winter, it’s hosted across multiple live houses in central Morioka, featuring many young bands. There also appears to be an open application process, so if you’re in a band in the Tohoku region, why not give it a try and enter?