Summer Sonic Festival

The Summer Sonic Festival (サマーソニック, Samā Sonikku), is an annual music festival held on one weekend in August simultaneously in both Chiba and Osaka, Japan. The festival features one lineup performing one day in Osaka then performing the next day in Chiba and vice-versa. The lineup often features major international acts in addition to Japanese artists from major and independent record companies.

"Sonicmania" redirects here. Not to be confused with Sonic Mania.
Summer Sonic Festival, aka Supersonic
Summer Sonic Chiba in 2015
GenreRock, alternative, electronic, metal, hip hop and pop
DatesAugust (2000–2019, 2022–)
September (2021)
Location(s)
  • Chiba, Japan
  • Osaka, Japan
  • Shanghai, China (2017)
    • Shen Di Ecology Park
    • Shanghai International Music Village
Years active2000–2019, 2021–present
Websitewww.summersonic.com

The festival was first held in 2000 at Fuji-Q Highland resort in Yamanashi Prefecture. The festival moved to Chiba in 2001, just east of Tokyo, and has occurred in both Chiba and Osaka simultaneously since 2002. Since 2011 the festival has been preceded by the all-night event Sonic Mania, a separately ticketed event held in Chiba only featuring an EDM-centric lineup. The 2009 and 2011 editions of the festival were held over three-days while all other editions of the festival have been two-days. A Chinese Summer Sonic festival was held in Shanghai in 2017 but has not been repeated.[1]

History

Summer Sonic Festival was founded in 2000 in Japan, by Naoki Shimizu, CEO of Tokyo promotions company Creativeman Productions Ltd.[2] Addressing the ever-growing demand for western music, the festival drew established and emerging musical acts of most genres to become, by 2010, Japan's biggest music event.

The Chiba event takes place every August at the massive Makuhari Messe convention center, which overlooks Tokyo Bay, with the main stage located in nearby Zozo Marine Stadium. In Osaka, the venue is Maishima Sonic Park. At all venues, there is always a large arena main stage and several other smaller stages.

In 2011, the festival established Sonicmania, whose focus is on Electronic dance music (EDM). It is held at Makuhari Messe the day before the festival.[3][4]

In 2012, Creativeman formed a joint venture with Live Nation Entertainment.[5] In 2014, Live Nation bought full control of the festival.[6]

The 2020 festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a truncated version, branded as 'Supersonic', took place in September 2021 with restrictions in place and a typhoon affecting day one. Possibly because of the logistics of moving people around during a pandemic, the 2021 line-up was mainly electronic. Controversy arose when some international DJs were allowed into Japan without having to quarantine despite the quarantine requirement for most other foreign arrivals.[7][8]

Performances

Line-ups for the festival in past years are as follows, the artists that in bold are the headlining acts for that year.

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010
August 7 Chiba / August 8 OsakaAugust 7 Osaka / August 8 Chiba

2011
August 13 Chiba / August 14 OsakaAugust 13 Osaka / August 14 Chiba

2012
August 18 (Chiba)/August 19 (Osaka)August 19 (Chiba)/August 18 (Osaka)

2013
August 10 Chiba / August 11 OsakaAugust 10 Osaka / August 11 Chiba

2014
August 16 Chiba / August 17 OsakaAugust 16 Osaka / August 17 Chiba

2015
August 15 Chiba / August 16 OsakaAugust 15 Osaka / August 16 Chiba

2016
August 20 Chiba / August 21 OsakaAugust 20 Osaka / August 21 Chiba

2017
August 19 Chiba / August 20 OsakaAugust 19 Osaka / August 20 ChibaAugust 26 Shanghai / August 27 Shanghai

2018
August 18 Chiba / August 19 OsakaAugust 18 Osaka) / August 19 Chiba

2019
August 16 Chiba / August 18 OsakaAugust 17 Chiba / August 16 OsakaAugust 18 Chiba / August 17 Osaka

2020

Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021
September 18 Chiba / Osaka CancelledSeptember 19 Chiba, Osaka Cancelled

2022
August 20 Chiba / August 21 OsakaAugust 21 Chiba / August 20 Osaka

2023
August 19 Chiba / August 20 OsakaAugust 20 Chiba / August 19 Osaka

See also

Notes
  1. The last Dream Theater show with Mike Portnoy on Drums.

References
  1. "Summer Sonic expands to Shanghai with LUNA SEA, Placebo, the Kooks and more". 21 June 2017.
  2. Hoban, Alex (25 August 2009). "Turning Japanese: Tokyo's promotional powerhouse, Aug 2009". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  3. "Sonicmania 2014 | Music in Tokyo".
  4. "SONICMANIA ステージ別ラインアップ発表！ | CREATIVEMAN PRODUCTIONS - Part 2011". 5 April 2018.
  5. "Live Nation Continues Expansion In Asia Through Creation Of Joint Venture With Leading Japanese Promoter Creativeman". Bloomberg (Press release). 2012-02-23. Archived from the original on 2014-12-29. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
  6. Ingham, Tim (2014-04-23). "Live Nation takes control of Japan business". Music Week. Retrieved 2014-06-21.
  7. "Summer Sonic 2022". tokyocheapo.com. Tokyo Cheapo. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  8. Ashcraft, Bryan (17 September 2021). "Zedd Just Showed The Unfairness Of Japan's Travel Ban, Sept 2021". kotaku.com. Kotaku. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
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