Rockfest: Japan’s Rock Festival 2012

Rock Festival in Japan. Photo courtesy of *pb* via Flickr.

Japan’s biggest rock festival kicks off in early August and rocks for three days solid. Held in the National Hitachi Seaside Park in Hitachinaka city (Ibaraki Prefecture) on August 3-5, 2012, the festival is the largest of its kind in Japan and continues to grow in popularity each year.

Despite the festival’s name, the bands featured are as pop as they are rock and this festival appeals to music lovers of all persuasions. Tickets sell out well in advance so be sure to book early!

This year’s line up includes the following:

August 3:

Applicat Spectra (NEW), Avengers in Sci-Fi, Back Number, The Band Apart, Capsule, Chara, Coldrain, Dustbox, Ryota Fujimaki, Good 4 Nothing, Motohiro Hata, Hemenway, Hige, Taro Kobayashi, Kreva, Kuroneko Chelsea, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, The Love Ningen, Maximum The Hormone, Merry, Nico Touches The Walls, Oreskaband, Overground Acoustic Underground, Plenty, Princess Princess, Rhymester, Rottengraffty, Scoobie Do, Straightener, Shikao Suga, 10-Feet, Totalfat, Tsuru, UL, Unison Square Garden, Weaver, Yuki

August 4:

Mao Abe, Akai-Koen, Yuko Ando, Androp, The Bawdies, Bigmama, Chatmonchy, Cinema Staff, Dendai, Elephant Kashimashi, Flower Companyz, Fujifabric, Glory Hill, Halcali, The Hiatus, Hilcrhyme, J, Killing Boy, Kaela Kimura, Kinniku Shojo Tai, Miwa, Monobright, Mo’some Tonebender, Mowmow Lulu Gyaban, Mucc, Mudy on the Sakuban, Yuji Nakada, 9mm Parabellum Bullet, Okamoto’s, Orange Range, Penpals, Perfume, Plastic Tree, Quruli, The Salovers, Suneohair, Triceratops, Mao Uchu, Zazen Boys

August 5:

Acidman, Asparagus, Base Ball Bear, [Champagne], Comeback My Daughters, Creephyp, Does, Flip, Fozztone, Funky Monkey Babys, Hello Sleepwalkers, Hidaka Toru with Fed Music, Leo Ieri, Masufumi Isobe & Kazuya Hirabayashi, Ketsumeishi, Knotlamp, Last Alliance, Low IQ 01 & Master Low, Magokoro Brothers, Man With A Mission, Tortoise Matsumoto, Miyavi, Aya Mizobuchi, Akihiro Namba, Negoto, Northern19, Tamio Okuda, One OK Rock, Pay Money To My Pain, Polysics, Sambomaster, Shakalabbits, Shinku-Horou, Spitz, Yu Takahashi, The Telephones, White Ash, Your Song Is Good, Zainichi Funk

Getting there: Hitachi-naka is 122km northeast of Tokyo. Tokyo to Katsuta station takes about 1.5 hours by train.

- Emma McMahon

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