Pharrell, Chemical Bros. For Summer Sonic

Japan’s Creativeman Productions has for the past few years announced artists slated for its Summer Sonic festival as early as New Year’s Day, though this year Smash Corp’s Fuji Rock Festival beat them to the punch.

Usually the first lineup for Fuji is announced March 1, but they released a handful of names on Jan. 31, before Summer Sonic.

Creativeman finally made its move Feb. 9 with a fairly deep roster. The headliners for the Aug. 15-16 festival appear to be Pharrell Williams and The Chemical Brothers, with D’Angelo and the Vanguard, Imagine Dragons and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis topping the second-tier stages.

Rounding out the announcement were Manic Street Preachers, The Script, Mew, Passion Pit, All Time Low, Echosmith, Magic!, Marmozets, Nico & Vinz, and a few others.

More to the point, CMP also announced part of the lineup for Sonic Mania, the rave that takes place the night before Summer Sonic kicks off (for a separate admission): Marilyn Manson, The Prodigy and Porter Robinson, with more to be added later. Not to be completely overshadowed, Fuji punched up its own lineup right away with some heavyweight additions: Jenny Lewis, Johnny Marr, Ryan Adams, Twenty One Pilots and Galactic featuring Macy Gray.