2013.09.28
Blue Lagoon Festival focus on ocean and music
With Typhoon Pabuk a mere speck on Okinawa’s far eastern horizon, it’s smooth sailing this weekend for the 9th Blue Lagoon Festival at 21st Century Forest in Nago City.
The two-day festival has been a late-September staple since 2005, with more than 100 groups of the nation’s top musicians taking part, and it has been held on the last weekend of September every year as the end of the summer season festival. This year’s Okinawa and Japanese mainland artists include Caravan, Soil & ”PIMP”sessions, UA, Misako Oshiro & Kanako Horiuchi, PUSHIM, Moomin, Keyco, Rickie-G, SpinnaB-ill, Keison, Albatrus, Nabowa, Dragon 76, Gravityfree, and Tomio.
The festival runs over two days, Sep. 28th and 29th, with gates opening at 11 a.m. each day, and the music beginning at 1 p.m. The concert and other activities run until about 9 p.m. at the Nago 21st Century Forest Park. Admission is ¥3,500 each day for advance tickets, or ¥4,000 at the gate. A two-day ticket is ¥6,000. All events take place on the outdoor stage at 21st Century Forest.
The event concentrates on the ocean and music in a festive format, with activities centering on live music, workshops, marine activities and beach cleaning in the northern part of Okinawa main island. This year’s festival is billed as the Blue Lagoon Festa, the 9th – The Revenge – Seaside-Music Festival.
Blue Lagoon Fest looks for opportunities that tell of nature and the ocean, spotlighting feelings of nature’s splendor through visitor experiences, marine activity and live music. The outdoor stage faces the ocean and the sky of Okinawa.
Within 21st Century Forest, Ocean Life Park is the seaside area that allows visitors to feel, enjoy and learn about the ocean. Aside from the music, Blue Lagoon Fest has four areas named “Ocean Life Park” including a handicraft market area, marine activity area, workshop & talk area and a brand names shopping area on theme of “Feel, Enjoy and Learn the ocean”. Organizers call it opportunity to carry out fun marine activities, such as the experience of riding and sailing a sea kayak and Sabani, and workshops using pieces of coral and shells that were picked up from the beach.
The brand names shopping area draws attention to the ocean with its outdoor and apparel brands, including many products not normally available in Okinawa from companies and groups that do not have branches in Okinawa. They’ll be established as a handicraft market. The Handmade market is a handmade market by creators from Okinawa.
An extensive, thorough “beach clean activity” will take place, and “Zero-garbage activity” using recycle cups and dishes with be a constant reminder of good citizenship by Blue Lagoon Festival organizers intent on promoting concerns for environment problems.
Opportunities to experiment with Sea kayaks, stand up paddles, Sabani boat riding, and beach trekking are all to be found in the Marine Activities area of the festival.