Depression Festival logoRei Kuromiya’s rock band Brats will appear in a festival hosted by Urbangarde, a long-running and often thought-provoking band from Tokyo. Called the Depression Festival (in Japanese it is a play on the word meaning “beautiful”), Urbangarde invite artists who push boundaries and provoke discussion of social issues for a eclectic day of music. The festival is on September 10th 2017.

Rei has collaborated with Urbangarde before: on Brats’ 14 year old disease track, and Urbangarde’s Heisei Death Game. Brats’ dark lyrics and Rei’s controversial, powerful past will bring a young person’s perspective to the festival.

The line up and timetable are on the festival site.

Event Details

When: September 10th 2017, from 14:00 on the main stage. Rei is also appearing at Natsu no Mamono 2017 with Ladybaby later the same day.

Where: Tustaya O-East, Shibuya, Tokyo (map)

Tickets: 5800 yen. Tickets might be available on the door if the show doesn’t sell out.

Advance tickets are available at Lawson Ticket. This site is in Japanese, but it is usable with automatic translation (I use Chrome) and accepts foreign credit cards. To register you need a Japanese address – use any address (e.g. address of a hotel) written in Japanese – don’t worry you won’t use it. Enter your normal mobile number, it is needed to pick up tickets. IMPORTANT: When ordering the ticket select “Collection over the counter” instead of delivery. After paying you get a page with a code number and your mobile number. Take a memo or print it out. When in Japan, use a “Loppi” machine in a Lawson store to select the tickets – you type in the numbers you got when ordering and it gives you a slip. Hand over the slip at the counter and you will get your tickets.

If you won’t have anyone who can read Japanese with you in Japan then make sure you read up on which options to select on the Loppi machine before ordering. See this page for more information (the advice about buying tickets is up-to-date and correct. The site also offers a proxy purchasing service but I cannot vouch for it as I have never used it).