First Of Fuji

Smash Corporation released March 1 the first list of acts for this year’s Fuji Rock Festival, which will take place July 30 to Aug.1 at the Naeba Ski Resort in the mountains of Niigata, Japan.

Twenty-seven artists were announced, including Belle and Sebastian, Broken Social Scene, The Cribs, Hot Chip, Ian Brown, LCD Soundsystem, Massive Attack, Muse, Them Crooked Vultures, Vampire Weekend and Yeasayer.

The timing is a little awkward for the other big foreign music-related Japan summer festival, Summer Sonic, which this year will take place on the following weekend, Aug. 7-8.

Usually, the two festivals are positioned two weeks apart, presumably to allow fans to recuperate.

On its Web site, Creativeman explained that the producers of SS, Fuji and Rock in Japan, coordinate their dates so that there is no overlap, but because of issues having to do with the venues, SS will take place the same weekend as Rock in Japan.

In addition, because so many festivals are going on in North America and Europe in August, Creativeman has found it difficult to book foreign acts. Therefore, this year it will return to its two-day format after experimenting with a three-day festival last year.

Acts for Summer Sonic will be announced shortly.