Summer Sonic Festival

Summer Sonic Festival



The Summer Sonic Festival is an annual 2 day rock festival held at the same time in Osaka and near Tokyo. The majority of the bands playing in Osaka the first day go to Tokyo the following day and vice versa.





Acts that have played at the festival include:

10 Years
65daysofstatic
AFI
The All-American Rejects
Amusement Parks on Fire
Arctic Monkeys
Army of Freshmen
Avenged Sevenfold
Big Strides
Blink-182
The Cardigans
The Cat Empire
The Charlatans
Daft Punk
Deftones
DJ Shadow
Editors
ELLEGARDEN
El Presidente
Fall Out Boy
The Feeling
The Flaming Lips
Fort Minor
Hawthorne Heights
Hoobastank
Keane
The Kooks
Linkin Park
Lostprophets
Massive Attack
Matisyahu
Metallica
m-flo
Muse
My Chemical Romance
Oblivion Dust
Phoenix
Daniel Powter
The Polyphonic Spree
POLYSICS
Puffy AmiYumi
Radiohead
The Rapture
Scritti Politti
Slipknot
Spank Rock
Stone Sour
Taking Back Sunday
the pillows
Tool
We Are Scientists
Zebrahead



Recently I wrote about the Fuji Rock Festival. Well, if that seemed a bit pricey, or long or far away, there’s the in-Tokyo alternative, known as Summer Sonic. It’s being held at the Chiba Marina Stadium and the adjoining Makuhari Messe convention centre from August 12th to 13th.

It’s slightly cheaper because it’s a) shorter, b) closer to Tokyo and c) well, cheaper. I’m not as excited about the line up as I was about the Fuji Rock lineup, but it may still be interesting for you.



Headlining are: Tool, Metallica, The Deftones, Linkin Park, Muse, Daft Punk and The Flaming Lips. There’s plenty more bands playing though, on smaller stages, including Japanese bands Beat Crusaders and m-flo, amongst others.

I’d recommend the whole festival though just to see my favourite band: The Cat Empire from my hometown, Melbourne in Australia. It’s their first time playing in Japan and because they’re playing on the Beach Stage it’s bound to be a fun gig.

Tix are ¥13,500 for one day or ¥24,500 for both days.

Summer Sonic official website (in Japanese and English)