"To create a space where music, nature, and community converge — a temporary city that celebrates art, sustainability, and the Japanese summer spirit."
Where the Name
Comes From
In the summer of 2020, a group of Osaka-based music promoters, producers, and artists — led by festival director Hiroshi Takeda — were standing on the Shonan shore at sunset. The light hit the estuary water in a way none of them had ever seen: a pure, burning gold that seemed to transform the entire landscape.
Takeda said, "This should be the name. Golden River." His colleague, visual artist Yuki Sato, immediately sketched what would become the first GRVF logo on the back of a food wrapper. The veil came later — a nod to the shimmering heat haze that hangs over Shonan in August, that thin, atmospheric boundary between the real world and something more luminous.
The first festival launched in August 2021 — cautiously, under COVID restrictions, at 30% normal capacity. 15,000 people showed up anyway, hungry for music, hungry for community, hungry for the feeling that had been stolen from them. Dawn Chorus headlined. By the second song, the beach was in tears.
GRVF believes festival food should be as good as the music. We partner only with vendors who share our values: fresh ingredients, minimal packaging, and a genuine love of craft.
Meet the Team
25 years in Japanese music promotion. Founded GRVF with a single sketch on a beach at sunset.
DJ, producer, and booker with connections across Asia's underground music scene. Curates every stage.
Visual artist and designer who creates GRVF's signature risograph aesthetic and all art installations.
Event logistics veteran. Manages 200 staff and 45,000 people — somehow always calm, always smiling.
Environmental engineer turned festival sustainability pioneer. Driving GRVF towards carbon neutrality by 2027.
Our Values
Every decision is made through the lens of: does this serve the music? The art? The artists?
We borrow the beach for three days. We leave it better than we found it. Always.
GRVF is not an event. It's a gathering of people who love music and each other.
All bodies, all identities, all backgrounds. Shonan beach belongs to everyone.
Japan at its heart — but open to the whole world. Music crosses every border.
Water, Nature
& Our Pledge
The beach is our home for three days each year. That comes with an enormous responsibility. We've committed to the most ambitious sustainability programme of any festival in Japan — and we publish full transparency reports after every edition.
The GRVF Timeline
STONE
FORK