Asia News: Summer Sonic Makes Big Return, Ariake Arena Hosts First Concert

JAPAN

Summer Sonic Makes Big Return

Over the weekend of August 20-21, Japan’s Summer Sonic festival returned to both Tokyo and Osaka for the first time since 2019. Tokyo’s edition, which took place at the Zozo Marine Stadium and adjacent Makuhari Messe Convention Center in the suburb of Chiba, sold out more than a month ago, with 20,000 showing up for the pre-fest rave Sonicmania, and 50,000 on each day of the festival proper. The Osaka edition, which took place on a manmade island in Osaka Bay, welcomed 30,000 patrons on each day.

The heavy attendance was certainly good news for promoter/organizer Creativeman Productions, though it did pose a challenge. Over the past month or so the latest COVID variant had been spreading throughout Japan like wildfire, breaking records on a daily basis, with Tokyo alone registering tens of thousands of new infections every day.

Nevertheless, Creativeman was determined to get the festival, which launched in 2001, back on track. No special restrictions were put in place, as they were at last year’s Super Sonic festival, which was basically Summer Sonic with local acts and a few foreign EDM artists. At Super Sonic no alcohol was sold and staff patrolled the crowd to make sure masks were secure and social distancing was observed.

Though patrons had their temperatures taken every time they entered a venue at Summer Sonic and everyone obeyed the mask rules, social distancing was mostly a matter of personal volition. Sections in front of individual stages were compartmentalized to reduce close contact, but for the most part it was the usual festival scene.

The one request that caused some controversy was that patrons not shout or sing along with the acts. Foreign artists, in particular Yungblud, who whipped his Saturday afternoon crowd into a frenzy, tended to ignore the directive and get away with it.

Social media, in fact, was where a lot of the action was, at least according to the mainstream media. The Instagram and Twitter accounts of Megan Thee Stallion, Kacey Musgraves and Rina Sawayama provided lots of exposure for Japan and lots of love to their fans.

The Libertines were forced to cancel their appearance due to “visa issues” but managed to send a file of a full live show they did in the last week or so that was specially recorded for Japan. It was shown on the main stage to a sizable crowd.

As has been the case in recent years, K-pop acts joined in the revelry, with Tomorrow X Together filling the cavernous Mountain Stage venue on Sunday and former 2NE1 rapper CL doing the same an hour or so later at the Sonic Stage.

Special props went out on social media to The 1975, who in a way helped keep things diverse by insisting they would only appear if 50-50 gender parity was achieved.

And the teenage Linda Lindas, playing in the morning of the first day in front of a huge crowd, made a lot of friends simply by saying this was the last big event before they went back to school in the fall. One major Japanese hardcore rock band apparently made fun of the group’s attempts at Japanese language during their set and were roundly scolded online by fans and others. Don’t pick on girls who know how to play punk rock as good as you do.

Ariake Arena Hosts First First Concert

A year after it was used mainly for volleyball and wheelchair basketball during the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, Ariake Arena held its first concert on August 21 when it hosted the J-pop vocal trio Perfume to a sold-out crowd. On August 26 it will be filled with Billie Eilish’s Japanese fans.

Ariake covers 4,000 square meters and holds a maximum of 15,000 people, and was one of six permanent venues built for the 2020 Games, which, of course, didn’t take place until 2021.

However, according to projections, Ariake is the only one of the six that is likely to make any money in the future, and that includes the new National Stadium. For the most part, the remaining five venues will not be able to cover their extensive maintenance costs with rentals, according to a study carried out in 2017.

Ariake might, as long as it can attract at least 10 major sporting events as well as some big concerts every year. If it does, projections say it could make as much as 360 million yen a year in profits.

Over the weekend of August 20-21, Japan’s Summer Sonic festival returned to both Tokyo and Osaka for the first time since 2019. Tokyo’s edition, which took place at the Zozo Marine Stadium and adjacent Makuhari Messe Convention Center in the suburb of Chiba, sold out more than a month ago, with 20,000 showing up for the pre-fest rave Sonicmania, and 50,000 on each day of the festival proper. Osaka, which took place on a manmade island in Osaka Bay, welcomed 30,000 patrons on each day.

The heavy attendance was certainly good news for promoter/organizer Creativeman Productions, though it did pose a challenge. Over the past month or so the latest COVID variant had been spreading throughout Japan like wildfire, breaking records on a daily basis, with Tokyo alone registering tens of thousands of new infections every day.

Nevertheless, Creativeman was determined to get the festival, which launched in 2001, back on track. No special restrictions were put in place, as they were at last year’s Super Sonic festival, which was basically Summer Sonic with local acts and a few foreign EDM artists. At Super Sonic no alcohol was sold and staff patrolled the crowd to make sure masks were secure and social distancing was observed.

Though patrons had their temperatures taken every time they entered a venue at Summer Sonic and everyone obeyed the mask rules, social distancing was mostly a matter of personal volition. Sections in front of individual stages were compartmentalized to reduce close contact, but for the most part it was the usual festival scene.

The one request that caused some controversy was that patrons not shout or sing along with the acts. Foreign artists, in particular Yungblud, who whipped his Saturday afternoon crowd into a frenzy, tended to ignore the directive and get away with it.

Social media, in fact, was where a lot of the action was, at least according to the mainstream media. The Instagram and Twitter accounts of Megan Thee Stallion, Kacey Musgraves and Rina Sawayama provided lots of exposure for Japan and lots of love to their fans.

The Libertines were forced to cancel their appearance due to “visa issues” but managed to send a file of a full live show they did in the last week or so that was specially recorded for Japan. It was shown on the main stage to a sizable crowd.

As has been the case in recent years, K-pop acts joined in the revelry, with Tomorrow X Together filling the cavernous Mountain Stage venue on Sunday and former 2NE1 rapper CL doing the same an hour or so later at the Sonic Stage.

Special props went out on social media to The 1975, who in a way helped keep things diverse by insisting they would only appear if 50-50 gender parity was achieved.

And the teenage Linda Lindas, playing in the morning of the first day in front of a huge crowd, made a lot of friends simply by saying this was the last big event before they went back to school in the fall. One major Japanese hardcore rock band apparently made fun of the group’s attempts at Japanese language during their set and were roundly scolded online by fans and others. Don’t pick on girls who know how to play punk rock as good as you do.

Ariake Arena Hosts First First Concert

A year after it was used mainly for volleyball and wheelchair basketball during the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, Ariake Arena held it’s first concert on August 21 when it hosted the J-pop vocal trio Perfume to a sold out crowd. On August 26 it will be filled with Billie Eilish’s Japanese fans.

Ariake covers 4,000 square meters and holds a maximum of 15,000 people, and was one of six permanent venues built for the 2020 Games, which, of course, didn’t take place until 2021.

However, according to projections, Ariake is the only one of the six that is likely to make any money in the future, and that includes the new National Stadium. For the most part, the remaining five venues will not be able to cover their extensive maintenance costs with rentals, according to a study carried out in 2017.

Ariake might, as long as it can attract at least 10 major sporting events as well as some big concerts every year. If it does, projections say it could make as much as 360 million yen a year in profits.