‘Peaceful Love’ rocks Okinawa this weekend

The annual Peaceful Love Rock Festival is scheduled to take place this weekend at Okinawa City Sports Park outdoor stage.

Perhaps the best known annual rock event in Okinawa, the “Peaceful Love Rock Festival” take place this weekend for the 31st time. While the festival traditionally features the best known Okinawan rock bands, the likes of Murasaki, Jet and Kachan, it is also an important venue for aspiring new performers that have been selected through a series of auditions through the weeks preceding the event. Recently, it also aims to become a venue for introducing rock performers from other Asian countries to Okinawan audiences.

The Peaceful Love Rock Festival’s theme “revitalizing by music” is holding as strong now as it has ever been since the festival was first organized back in 1983.

Okinawan rock’n roll traditionally fills an important gap connecting cultures between Japan and America to the extent that a new genre of music called “Okinawan Rock” is now a firmly established fact. The genre was born from a very hard music environment as amusement service to American young servicemen and Okinawan young people.

In this year’s event local veteran bands, Okinawan young groups and musicians from Korea, China and Taiwan will show up to perform on the same stage!

Performers on the first day of the event, Sat. are mainly young groups. Those include some young bands that have become very famous in Japan, such as Orange range, HY, Kariyushi58 and others are coming back to Okinawa to perform in this festival.

On the first day, a group from Korea, called Yellow Monsters, a band from Osaka audition, called Go-Cart Monkey and musicians from Taiwan called Hoang Syan Ryan + Fong Ye Thuan will be on stage.

On Sunday, the day’s performers are veterans of leading Okinawan rock, such as Murasaki, JET with Sakura Ishado, Sideweys and “The Okinawan legend” Kachan & Rainbow.

A group from the Philippines called PRYZM will be on the stage, too. They have performed in Okinawa for many years, and their skills and live performance are really polished.

Two groups that won the event auditions will also appear; Shonen Resistance is on stage Saturday and LiM on Sunday.

Peaceful Love Rock Festival will open both days at 1 p.m. while performances start half an hour later at Okinawa City Outdoor Special Stage within Okinawa Sports Park premises near Kadena Gate 5.

Tickets are available amont other venues at Okinawa Market on Chuo Park Avenue in Okinawa City, and cost are ¥3,500 for each day, or ¥6,000 for two days.

Okinawa Market is at 098-989-0071, Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00.

07:08 06 Dec , 2024