Japanese music festival
"Sonicmania" redirects here. Not to be confused with
Sonic Mania
.
Summer Sonic
(
サマ?ソニック
,
Sam? Sonikku
)
, is an annual
music festival
held on one weekend in August simultaneously in both
Chiba
and
Osaka
, Japan. The festival features revolving lineups 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.
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. International versions of the festival have occasionally been held outside of Japan, including
Shanghai
in 2017 and
Bangkok
in 2024.
[1]
[2]
History
[
edit
]
Summer Sonic Festival was founded in 2000 in Japan, by Naoki Shimizu, CEO of Tokyo promotions company Creativeman Productions Ltd.
[3]
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.
[4]
[5]
In 2012, Creativeman formed a joint venture with
Live Nation Entertainment
.
[6]
In 2014, Live Nation bought full control of the festival.
[7]
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.
[8]
[9]
Thanks to its popularity outside of Japan including Brazil, the festival was aired on
Rede Bandeirantes
starting in 2010 and continuing until now.
Performances
[
edit
]
Line-ups for the festival in past years are as follows, the artists that in
bold
are the headlining acts for that year.
2000
[
edit
]
2001
[
edit
]
2002
[
edit
]
2003
[
edit
]
2004
[
edit
]
2005
[
edit
]
2006
[
edit
]
2007
[
edit
]
2008
[
edit
]
2009
[
edit
]
2010
[
edit
]
August 7 Chiba / August 8 Osaka
|
August 7 Osaka / August 8 Chiba
|
|
|
2011
[
edit
]
August 13 Chiba / August 14 Osaka
|
August 13 Osaka / August 14 Chiba
|
|
|
2012
[
edit
]
August 18 (Chiba)/August 19 (Osaka)
|
August 19 (Chiba)/August 18 (Osaka)
|
|
|
2013
[
edit
]
August 10 Chiba / August 11 Osaka
|
August 10 Osaka / August 11 Chiba
|
|
|
2014
[
edit
]
August 16 Chiba / August 17 Osaka
|
August 16 Osaka / August 17 Chiba
|
|
|
2015
[
edit
]
August 15 Chiba / August 16 Osaka
|
August 15 Osaka / August 16 Chiba
|
|
|
2016
[
edit
]
August 20 Chiba / August 21 Osaka
|
August 20 Osaka / August 21 Chiba
|
|
|
2017
[
edit
]
August 19 Chiba / August 20 Osaka
|
August 19 Osaka / August 20 Chiba
|
August 26 Shanghai / August 27 Shanghai
|
|
|
|
2018
[
edit
]
August 18 Chiba / August 19 Osaka
|
August 18 Osaka) / August 19 Chiba
|
|
|
2019
[
edit
]
August 16 Chiba / August 18 Osaka
|
August 17 Chiba / August 16 Osaka
|
August 18 Chiba / August 17 Osaka
|
|
|
|
2020
[
edit
]
Canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
.
2021
[
edit
]
September 18 Chiba / Osaka Cancelled
|
September 19 Chiba / Osaka Cancelled
|
|
|
2022
[
edit
]
August 20 Chiba / August 21 Osaka
|
August 21 Chiba / August 20 Osaka
|
|
|
2023
[
edit
]
August 19 Chiba / August 20 Osaka
|
August 20 Chiba / August 19 Osaka
|
|
|
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
The last Dream Theater show with Mike Portnoy on Drums.
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Music festivals in Japan
|
---|
Pop
| |
---|
Rock
| |
---|
Folk
| |
---|
Classical
| |
---|
Jazz
| |
---|
Hip Hop
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|
Multi-genre
| |
---|
Related events
| |
---|
|
|
---|
Subtypes
| |
---|
Traveling
(
italics
= ongoing)
| |
---|
Culture
| |
---|
Related events
| |
---|