ULTRA JAPAN

ULTRA JAPAN is a dance music festival held over two days each September at Odaiba in Tokyo. It is the Japanese edition of Ultra, which started in Miami and now runs in a number of countries, and the organisers call it the largest festival of its kind in Japan.

The ground it uses is built for it and taken away afterwards. Tokyo Odaiba Ultra Park stands on open land at Aomi, on the reclaimed islands in Tokyo Bay, so this is a festival inside the city rather than out in the country, and it ends at a station rather than a campsite.

Three stages run through both days, each with its own line-up. The main stage carries the headline acts, most of them from abroad, and closes the festival on each night. Lasers, flame and screens are as much a part of it as the music.

RESISTANCE is the techno stage, harder and closer to the underground clubs, and it keeps going into the dark.

The Ultra Park stage is given mainly to DJs working in Japan. Some of its sets are now played face to face, with two DJs in booths turned towards each other, answering one another's records instead of taking the decks in turn.

The U-23 tickets are for people under 23. Nobody under 18 is admitted, photo identification is checked at the gate, and tickets are not refunded.