Summer Sonic (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 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
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]
In 2019, B'z was announced as the first, and so far only, Japanese headliner in the festival's twenty-year history.[8][9]
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.[10][11]
Performances
Line-ups for the festival in past years are as follows, the artists that in bold are the headlining acts for that year.
