Japanese festival Labyrinth has decided not to unveil the line-up for its 2018 edition, held at Naeba Greenland from September 22nd to the 24th.
The techno festival’s organization, Mindgames, has recently released an announcement stating that line-up and timetable will be revealed only at the entrance and they asked not to share it online, to “experience something rare” because,”mystery and surprise are key elements of artistic experiences but expectations can sometimes get in the way.”
Read the full statement below!
“We have decided not to release this year’s line-up before the event. We’d like to share some of our thinking here.
Mystery and surprise are key elements of artistic experiences, but expectations can sometimes get in the way. In the case of a festival, it’s easy to build up expectations via line-up announcements, online recordings, and other promotional activities.
But surprises can be more fun, so this year we are asking you to leave your expectations at home. We want you to experience something rare in today’s world: an event where you show up not knowing who will perform. When you arrive at the gate, you will be given the timetable, and we ask that you not share that timetable online. Let your friends who are coming also discover the timetable through the guide handed to them the moment they arrive. The timetable is a personal thing, the result of months of reflection on the previous events and our vision for this year. We want that to be just for those who join us there.
We don’t mind teasing a little, though, given that games are our thing. So we will say that five artists are playing Labyrinth for the first time this year; that an old friend who has not played since the days of Kawaba will happily be returning; and that the final day represents an important statement from one of the family…
We only have the luxury of this experiment because of the trust the Labyrinth crowd has placed in us over the years. For this trust we are grateful, and we hope can give you a few surprises in return. In the future we might release the line-ups again. We shall see. But for this mind game, we’d like to play something different.”
-Mindgames
