What is The Labyrinth
An open-air rave presented by Mindgames. Built around psychedelic techno, ambient and deep house, it assembles three days of unbroken sound on a single floor. Artists aren't slotted into a timetable — they're placed as chapters in a story. Daylight, dusk, deep night, dawn. As time shifts, so does the sound.
After a decade in Naeba, the festival moved to Minakami following its final edition there in 2018. Since then, the forest of Hodaigi has been the stage. Tickets include three nights of camping, designed on the premise that you'll stay on site for the full three days.
One floor, in a forest of birch and larch.
The venue is Hodaigi Campground in Minakami, Gunma. At 1,000 metres above sea level, at the foot of Mt. Hotaka, a forest of birch and larch spreads out. The floor sits inside that forest, the sound slipping away between the trees.
The campground has 24-hour coin showers, flush toilets and a BBQ area, and the on-site "Shirakaba House" is also available. October nights in Minakami get seriously cold — warm clothing is essential.
Two faces, a first-ever closing set, and a return after ten years.
ARCHITECTURAL (REEKO)
The project of Juan Rico. He launched PoleGroup with Oscar Mulero in 2010, and has released as REEKO on Delsin and Samurai, and as ARCHITECTURAL on R&S and Semantica. This year he presents two sets back to back. REEKO and ARCHITECTURAL — the two faces he carries within.
ATOM™ & TOBIAS.
Two musicians who have been improvising together for thirty years. They have played The Labyrinth seven times since 2011, yet not a single one of those performances has ever been released as a recording. If you want to experience it, you have to be there. This year, for the first time, they take the closing slot on the final day.
Petar Dundov
Petar Dundov returns to The Labyrinth with a live set for the first time in ten years. The Croatian composer, known for progressive techno that layers long-form arpeggios and shifts the landscape little by little, stands in this forest once again. Jonathan Fitoussi played the closing set on the full-moon night of 2019 — a live performance of cosmic ambient and electronics drawn from modular synths and analogue gear. This year, in the darkness of a new moon, that night gets its continuation.
RESIDENTS
The residents hold up the hours of this forest. Peter Van Hoesen, who has played every edition since 2008, takes the Sunday late-night peak, while Donato Dozzy, on board since 2007, handles the Sunday afternoon freestyle. Co-organiser So also steps onto the floor again this year.
AND MORE
Doltz., Tobias.'s project, brings a live set from Delsin. Napirelly played a B2B in 2024 as Immediate Proximity, her unit with Delta Funktionen, and in 2025 returned as a volunteer working the parking lot. This year she comes back as the first artist to be offered a slot. Born in Leningrad, raised in the Arctic town of Salekhard, she spent three years working at the Dutch record pressing plant Deepgrooves Vinyl and is now based in St. Petersburg. 鏡民 / Kyomi makes a debut appearance, followed by Hiyoshi and Kaito.
Gear that didn't exist in Japan, delivered for this forest.
The Labyrinth's sound is Funktion-One. Last year saw the biggest system overhaul in over a decade. The low end moved from F218 and Infrabass bass bins to asymmetrically arranged stacks of F121 and F124. Each stack covers a different band of frequencies, a design intended to minimise interference. For the mids and highs, EVO7 and EVO6 replace the previous RES5, with the latest EVO2 model handling the centre infill.
Meta Audio placed a special order for gear that didn't exist in Japan, and Funktion-One's UK headquarters rushed production to get it delivered. The system is tuned continuously across all three days, while it's playing.
INFORMATION
Tickets are sold out. There are no door sales.
All ticket types include three nights of camping, with the option to extend through Tuesday. Nights get cold, so warm clothing is essential.
In a forest 1,000 metres above sea level, three days of sound become a single story.
Japan's defining open-air rave opens its gates once again this year.
◯ Dates 2026.10.10 (Sat) 12:00 - 10.12 (Mon)
◯ Venue Hodaigi Campground, Minakami, Gunma
◯ Genre Techno / Ambient / Deep House
◯ Sound Funktion-One
SOLD OUT (no door sales)
Presented by Mindgames
