A camp-style rave in the forests of Hinode, Tokyo,
dancing all night through
It kicks off at midday on September 5 and runs a full day, through to midday on the 6th. At Ooba Camp Village in Hinode, Tokyo, the camp-style rave "FOREST SOUND CAMP" is set to take place. Behind it is a crew that grew up in the forest, studied forestry, and now moves within Tokyo's club scene.
Raised in the forest, trained in forestry, drawn to dance music.
The organizer is Universal Music Box/UMB, a crew that has been putting on events in Tokyo's club scene. Its members grew up in an environment where their grandfather ran a campsite, playing in the woods from an early age, living in contact with trees. They went on to study forestry in high school and university, and now find themselves inside dance music culture.
The "forest" they've known since childhood, and the "music" they're immersed in now. Could these two seemingly distant things be connected in their own way? FOREST SOUND CAMP was born out of that question.
Crossing boundaries, blending together.
Their banner reads "coexistence of forest and music." On site, there will be hands-on experiences you make with your own hands: wood splitting, Hita cedar fans, silkscreen T-shirt printing. The material used is "Tama-sourced timber," wood grown in Tokyo's own forests. Using wood feeds into a cycle of growing the forest, using it, and growing it again.
Forest and dance music. Play and learning. Rather than treating them as separate things, the aim is to search for the possibilities that emerge when the boundary between them is crossed and they mix. For music lovers, for nature lovers, for those coming with family. FOREST SOUND CAMP is an experiment in building a new relationship with the forest, with music as the point of entry.
The same Tokyo, a Tokyo you don't know.
The chosen setting is Nishitama, spreading across the western edge of Tokyo. Forest covers roughly 80% of the area, and in Hinode, the host town, more than 70% of the land is woodland.
Living in Tokyo, yet knowing nothing of Tokyo's forests. Bringing the dance music culture nurtured in the city center out into the forests of that same Tokyo. Crossing that distance is precisely what's embedded in the choice of location.
Upstream on the Hirai River, a campsite among the trees.
The venue is Ooba Campsite, set among the woods upstream on the Hirai River in Ōkuno, Hinode. The gates open at midday, and the night carries through until midday the following day — a stretch of time that can't be contained within the operating hours of a city-center club, spent straight through in the forest.
Over 20 acts carry the forest floor from midday to the next morning.
At the core are Stones Taro, Guchon, and Jackie, a member of Teklife, the legendary Chicago footwork/juke crew. It's a lineup that traverses bass music and house, from UK garage to ghetto house to footwork. Two live acts and over 20 DJs are on the bill, including JUN INAGAWA and EL the BLUE with a live set.
Holding the sound together is VOID Acoustics from the UK. Built around Tri Motion, the system preserves the attack of the kick, the depth and weight of the bass, and the fine contours of the sound, creating a three-dimensional sound field among the trees. Sound that isn't just heard with the ears but felt in the body keeps ringing out in the darkness of the forest.
INFORMATION
Advance tickets are ¥3,500, door tickets ¥4,500. Both require one drink purchase separately.
"I had no idea a place like this existed in Tokyo."
That discovery is waiting here.
