With a Sunday night headlining set from Radiohead and three days of uninterrupted good weather, the 2012 edition of Fuji Rock ended up being our festival highlight of the year. Chances are that the weather won't be as good when the event returns to Naeba, Niigata Prefecture in the final weekend of July – but the music might be. Nine Inch Nails, Bjork and The Cure have been confirmed as headliners, joined by EDM wunderkind Skrillex, stadium-folk sensations Mumford & Sons, The XX and acts ranging from Flying Lotus to Suzanne Vega. They've also snagged My Bloody Valentine, who were originally due to headline May's abortive Tokyo Rocks fest. (Er... any chance we could get Blur, too?) Tickets are on general sale now (see ganban-frf.ocnk.net for details about overseas purchases); here's the lineup so far:
Friday 26:
Nine Inch Nails, Skrillex, Morio Agata, Kenichi Asai & Bad Teacher Kill Club, Brahman, Bryan Burton-Lewis & Tadanobu Asano, Caribbean Dandy, Char, Chara x Yusuke Kobayashi x KenKen, Gary Clark Jr., Cro-Magnon, Death Grips, Dohatsuten, Flying Lotus, Fragment x Keikoto Band, Fun., The Gaslamp Killer, Gentlemans Pistols, Kaoru Inoue, DJ Izpon, Kemuri, Local Natives, My Bloody Valentine, DJ Nobu, Stefano Noferini, Of Monsters and Men, Peppertones, Phunk Investigation, Quattro, Radical Music Network, CJ Ramone, Rhye, Eddie Roberts' West Coast Sounds, Porter Robinson, Route 17 Rock'n'Roll Orchestra, The Sea and Cake, Ron Sexsmith, DJ Shadow, Soil & "Pimp" Sessions, Sparks, Yabe Tadashi, Tame Impala, Tower of Power, Turtle Island, Yellowcard
Saturday 27:
Bjork, Karl Hyde, Jurassic 5, Priscilla Ahn, Baianasystem, Julio Bashmore, The Bawdies, Boys Noize (live), The Cherry Coke$, Coheed and Cambria, Maya Jane Coles, Darkstar, Adam Deitch (DJ set), Doberman, Mark Ernestus presents Jeri-Jeri, Feed Me, Foals, Garth Hudson, Hurts, Dr Ihara, Jack Beats (DJ set), Killswitch Engage, Kyte, Lama, Kendrick Lamar, Daniel Lanois, Kenta Maeno & Soaplanders, Aimee Mann, Mannish Boys, Modeselektor, Fermin Muguruza Kontrakantxa, Namba69, Mari Natsuki, Tom Odell, Tamio Okuda, Rocket from the Crypt, Ryukyudisko, DJ Scratchy, Raphael Sebbag, Skinny Lister, Steruss, Shugo Tokumaru, Suzanne Vega, Very Be Careful, Your Song is Good
Sunday 28:
The Cure, Vampire Weekend, The XX, Bauuer, Mulatu Astatke, Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, Big Willie's Burlesque presents Mambo Loco, Bo Ningen, Cat Power, Daughter, DIIV, Ego-Wrappin' and the Gossip of Jaxx, Brinsley Forde, The Golden Wet Fingers, Goma & The Jungle Rhythm Section, Haim, The Hot 8 Brass Band, A Hundred Birds feat. Ten & Gebo, Takkyu Ishino, Jamie XX, Jazzanova, DJ Jim, Tokiko Kato & Theatre Brook, Fusanosuke Kondo & The 1968 Band, Daisuke Kuroda, Lettuce, Lite, Lotus, Mitsukaze & Green Massive, Muddy Apes, Mumford & Sons, Murasaki Baby Doll with JVC Force Trio, David Murray Big Band featuring Macy Gray, Tavito Nanao, Portugal, The Man, Savages, Shacho, Sheena & The Rokkets, Sotaisei Riron, Sugiurumn, Tahiti 80, The Telephones, Yosuke Tominaga, Toro Y Moi, Yo La Tengo