"This is Fuji Rock No. 20," said Beck Hansen, lounging against the drum kit at the end of his hit-laden Saturday night set at this year's Fuji Rock Festival. "Twenty years goes in the blink of an eye, so I think we need to just take a moment here to appreciate ... take this in."

Fuji Rock's founder, veteran promoter Masahiro Hidaka, had told The Japan Times a few weeks earlier that he didn't want to make a big deal about the festival reaching its 20th anniversary, but it was all anybody else wanted to talk about this year. Beck was one of numerous artists to acknowledge the significance of the occasion during their sets. Fran Healy, of Scottish rockers Travis, went for a triple whammy when he announced that it was his birthday — and the band's 20th anniversary year — too.

While the inaugural Fuji Rock was wiped out by a typhoon, this year's edition enjoyed three days of near-perfect weather, interrupted only by a brief shower on Sunday evening. (Fittingly, it was heavy metal idol group Babymetal, the most divisive act on the bill, who brought the rain.) Organizers posted combined attendance figures of 125,000, making it the most successful year since Radiohead headlined in 2012.