Too Hot to Be Cool Beach Festival | Rock for Climate
For our 9th edition, Too Hot to Be Cool is leaving the city and heading to the ocean. It's our first outdoor event and our first half-day festival, with eight live rock acts on a single afternoon by the sea. Supporting mangrove protection in the Philippines.
🏖️ The venue: NA Seci
NA Seci is an umi no ie (seasonal beach house) on Zaimokuza Beach in Kamakura. Six bars and restaurants share the space, with tables and chairs facing the stage and an open floor in front for dancing.
Your ticket gets you in and a guaranteed seat at a table for the whole afternoon. When you check in, we give you a wristband so you can come and go freely between the venue and the beach. Catch a band, chill at your table with a drink, go for a swim, come back for the next set. Loop until 19:00.
Most tables seat 4. A few seat 6 to 8. Seats are first come, first served, so if you want to pick your spot and seat with your friends, arrive early!
Doors open at 12:00, with our rock DJs welcoming you. First band at 12:40.
🎸 The lineup
Eight live acts: a best-of from two years of THTBC, plus new acts playing our stage for the first time. Cover bands and originals. Japanese and international. Garage, punk, surf, funk, retro, psyche, and more!
Bird Diner (garage rock): An all-women garage rock band with roots in the 50s and 60s. All members sing, weaving rich vocal harmonies through jangly guitars and a steady backbeat.
theCOMMON (punk): Tokyo punk trio inspired by The Clash, with all three members trading vocals. Driving rhythms, gritty guitars, and socially charged anthems.
The French Toast (French rock covers): Four decades of French rock and pop, from melodic ballads to new-wave anthems. Sung in French, played with humor and a cold drink in hand. No French required.
FUQA (raw pop rock): A two-piece punching way above their weight. Riff-heavy hard rock with punk and garage edges, channeling 70s and 80s legends like Black Sabbath and Iggy Pop.
Jap Hot Chili Peppers (funk rock): California funk rock landing on Kamakura sand. Tokyo's Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute brings sunbaked grooves, slap-bass swagger, and Los Angeles beach energy across the Pacific.
Konnichiwa Typhoon (slacker surf rock): Tokyo surf rock with catchy hooks and rich harmonies. Easy summer energy, the perfect soundtrack for dancing in the sand or chilling at your table.
Moon Room (pop punk): Tokyo alt-rockers with a special Green Day tribute set. Fast, melodic California punk from a band whose anti-establishment streak goes back to day one. Right at home with our values.
Zooich & jaqoo (experimental fusion): A special collaboration between two solo artists. Zooich plays wild drums on recycled materials, with hundreds of thousands social media followers. jaqoo improvises on shamisen, blending cyber-punk, psyche, and modern Japanese tradition.
🌞 Also on the day
DJ Suburbia: rock devotee from Italy, spinning punk, rock, emo, and hardcore between our live sets.
DJ Jocelyn G. (Thee Blackdoor Blues): a multifaceted artist from Mexico, Jocelyn is a singer, guitarist, model, and rock DJ.
Live painting by Wonderful Sweet Orange. Vintage mellow pop-core visuals taking shape in real time as the music plays.
MCs Kaomi & Lisa. Our unstoppable bilingual duo returns to guide the day with style, humor, and heart. They've been the voices of every THTBC edition so far.
🍴 Food and drinks
NA Seci's six on-site bars and restaurants serve food and drinks throughout the afternoon, with a mix of grill-style plates, snacks, and beachside refreshments. Full menu details closer to the date.
🌏 The cause
100% of ticket proceeds go to Mangrove Matters PH, a youth-led Philippines NPO restoring mangrove ecosystems and supporting the coastal communities that depend on them. Mangroves are one of the planet's most effective climate defenses: they store more carbon per hectare than tropical forests, shield coastlines from storms, and shelter the fish stocks coastal communities live on.
The Philippines is on the front line of the climate crisis, absorbing some of the most punishing typhoons and sea-level impacts on the planet. It's also one of the places where bold local solutions like this one are taking root.
Your ticket helps protect a forest that grows in the sea.
🎫 Tickets
Advance: ¥3,000
Door: ¥4,000
Under 27: ¥2,000
Under 16: ¥1,000
Advance tickets save you ¥1,000 and help us plan the day. Booking early also guarantees your entry, since the venue has a capped capacity. Lock yours in.
⛈️ Weather and refunds
This is an outdoor event, so a typhoon or extreme weather (thank you climate change!) could force us to cancel. If that happens, you have two options:
Full 100% refund, or
Free exchange for our next edition: Saturday 14 November at Shinjuku MARZ, an all-women-led rock festival in collaboration with UK NPO LOUD WOMEN.
We'll communicate any cancellation risks as early as possible by email notifications to ticket holders and through our Instagram.
📅 Schedule
12:00 Doors open
12:40 First band
19:00 Last note
Full running order announced closer to the date.
👨👩👧 Kids and families
THTBC Beach Festival is a great day out for families. A few things that make it work:
Guaranteed seats for every ticket holder, so little ones can rest, eat, and recharge between sets.
Easy in and out between the music area and the beach. Step away whenever you need to.
Outdoor sound regulation keeps the volume beach-friendly, much gentler on small ears than a closed live venue.
A diverse lineup with rock for every age, from surf and funk to garage and pop punk.
Kids and teenagers tickets at ¥1,000 to keep it accessible.
🚆 Getting there
The venue is a short ride from JR Kamakura Station, which is about an hour from central Tokyo on the JR Yokosuka Line.
From Kamakura Station East Exit, take the Keikyu bus toward Zushi (via Kotsubo), get off at the Zaimokuza stop, then walk two minutes to the beach. The bus ride takes about 8 to 10 minutes.
Please come by public transport if you can. Parking is limited and the beach gets crowded in summer, and frankly, a climate event runs better on trains and buses than on cars.
🔥 About Too Hot to Be Cool
Since April 2024, Too Hot to Be Cool has been bringing Tokyo's rock scene together to raise funds for youth-led environmental NPOs in Southeast Asia. Across eight editions, we've raised nearly ¥1.5M for climate organizations in Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
💚 Our values
No discrimination, no harassment. THTBC welcomes everyone: all nationalities, all genders, all ages, all backgrounds.
Live music should be a space of respect, inclusion, and freedom for both artists and audience. This beach is a safe harbor where you can show up exactly as you are, have fun, meet new friends, and support a cause that matters for everyone on this planet.
We strive to keep THTBC accessible across generations, especially for young people discovering live music and climate action for the first time.
🤝 Partners and support
Big thanks to Ichigo Bloom for organization, direction, sustainability advisory, and promotion; to More Than Music for promotion support; and to NA Seci for hosting us at Zaimokuza Beach.
Event organized by the Too Hot to Be Cool volunteer team.
Follow us on Instagram for updates about this event and our next ones!