Anyone with a passing interest in demographic crises will know that Japan, with its prodigious life expectancy and ever-declining birth rate, is a textbook example of the problems of an aging society. One of the more poignant side effects of this is the increasing number of abandoned schools around Tokyo, which is part of what makes the Haikou Fes music festival on May 6 such an interesting idea.
For one day, a panoply of musicians and artists will take over a redundant elementary school in the city's central Shinjuku district and turn it into what organizer Tomoji Takeuchi calls "a school festival for adults." Following the pattern of a traditional Japanese school cultural festival, several classrooms and the gym will each be curated by a different person with their own concept, from underground punk music to guitar workshops to craft exhibitions. The result should be a music event that breaks out of the restrictions of Tokyo's money-orientated live scene.
Jinichiro Iida of the band Limited Express (Has Gone?), who will be playing at the event and looking after one of the rooms, describes the festival's objective as being "the antithesis of the existing music scene." Indeed, he says that the team behind it rejected overtures from major labels hoping to use the event as a showcase for their own artists. As a result, there is a defiantly lo-fi and indie feel pervading the lineup.