At the festival’s start on Thursday night, a threatening typhoon is actually the most talked about news among Fuji Rock-goers. Currently at tropical storm strength, the system formed in the Pacific a couple days before the festival, and various forecast maps had it going right over the festival grounds, projecting a wild scenario that a typhoon would hit Sunday evening as 77-year-old Bob Dylan plays the festival’s main stage. It’s an echo perhaps of Fuji Rock’s legendary first year when a typhoon struck as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers performed, the fest site turned into a disaster zone and a second day of performances was cancelled. Fortunately, the storm is not that strong and according to some predictions seems to be veering at least slightly away.

Friday morning in the Naeba ski resort, where Fuji Rock is held, the weather was absolutely gorgeous with brilliant blue skies. One couldn’t reasonably hope for better weather.

Yet the big news remains Bob Dylan and Kendrick Lamar, recent recipients of a Nobel Prize for Literature and a Pulitzer Prize for Music respectively, elite accolades not normally associated with giant music festivals. Bob Dylan is in fact such a big deal for Fuji Rock that while he is playing, no other performances will take place on the fest’s other major stages. Only a few DJ stages will continue to play in peripheral areas of the fairground. Dylan’s legend –– that of ’60s flower power and music cum political resistance –– is long admired by the Fuji Rock organizers and considered to be part of their ethos, even though they founded the festival in the 90s as a vehicle not for legends but for the biggest rock acts of the day –– the 1997 lineup of Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters, Rage Against the Machine and Beck was almost like an Asian Lollapalooza. One feels that even Fuji Rock is a bit in awe of Dylan, and even if, as reports of his recent concerts suggest, that he will not play any recognizable versions of his iconic songs, his mere presence will become a milestone in Fuji Rock history.

Kendrick Lamar is a big deal for a different reason. He becomes the first hip hop artist to take Fuji Rock’s main headliner spot. At a traditional “rock” festival, the incursions of hip hop have been much discussed over the last decade. Kanye West was a very controversial decision when he was announced to play in 2014, though he eventually cancelled. Lamar has played Fuji Rock before, but this time he ranks with Dylan as the festiva’s main act, and quite possibly it’s main draw for thousands of younger fans. He also comes at the height of his powers, and is the type of artist that is popular but not pop, with music legitimately reflecting some of the harder realities of the contemporary world, that works both for Fuji Rock’s programmers and fans.

But at a giant festival of 200+ musical acts and attended by 30,000 to 40,000 a day, headliners are not everything. Fuji Rock is legendary for its cheerful and celebratory vibe. This year it benefits from arrivals of several groups of Cuban and Columbian musicians hand-picked by Fuji Rock founder Masa Hidaka and a whole festival area, the Unfairground, imported from Glastonbury, which is lying fallow in 2018, giving its regulars a chance to fly halfway around the world and bestow their legendary wild weirdness on the Japanese. Cuban and Columbian bands include Rancho Aparte, Roberto Carcasses Trio and Cubana Fiesta, all of whom will give multiple performances at the fest’s wonderful smaller stages, like the Crystal Palace Tent and the Cafe de Paris, a daytime cabaret that serves mojitos and sparkling sangria. At the Unfairground, the Glastonbury folks will mix bizzaro art installations, roving post-modern festival carnies and DJ stages to create their unique brand of fun.

So there’s your short list of what you need to know for 2018 Fuji Rock. Of course there’s much more to discover and enjoy, but those acts, along with the path of the approaching typhoon, will keep you covered for festival “news.”