Summer Sonic Draws 165,000

This year’s Summer Sonic festival, staged simultaneously Aug. 16-17 in Osaka and the Tokyo suburb of Chiba, attracted a total of 165,000 people (105,000 Tokyo; 60,000 Osaka), according to organizer Creativeman Productions.

Photo: Summer Sonic

plays Summer Sonic 2014

Headliners included Arctic Monkeys, Queen and Adam Lambert, Robert Plant, and Kraftwerk. Among the highlights of the weekend was an old school hip-hop party on the festival’s sand-strewn Beach Stage Saturday night featuring De La Soul, the Pharcyde, and Pete Rock & CL Smooth.

The female pop contingent was also formidable, with Azealia Banks, Sky Ferreira, Charli XCX and Ellie Goulding performing somewhere or other during the two-day event, though the biggest draw of the weekend may very well have been Babymetal, the teen Japanese female idol trio that bops to metal power chords and opened for Lady Gaga during part of her American tour.

There was also a larger representation of Asian rock bands, especially from Taiwan and Korea.