Asia News: Typhoon Threatens Summer Sonic; Creativeman Rockin’ On; HYBE, Tech Cos. Tackle Scalping

JAPAN

Typhoon Ampil Threatens Summer Sonic

Typhoon Ampil threatened the Tokyo edition of Japan’s biggest urban pop festival, Summer Sonic, which took place the weekend of Aug. 17-18 in the city of Chiba, located directly east of Tokyo.

The festival also takes place simultaneously in Osaka, which was not in the storm’s path, but Tokyo is the much bigger deal since it tends to draw almost twice as many people.

However, while the typhoon did bring heavy rain and winds to the Tokyo metro area, it stayed far off the coast and veered northeast late on Aug. 16.

The weather did affect Sonic Mania, the all-night party that traditionally takes place the Friday night before the actual festival, and which this year included such heavyweights as Underworld, Arca and Young Fathers.

Because train lines in the Tokyo area reduced service on Aug. 16 for safety’s sake, it may have been difficult for some ticketholders to make it on time to the venue, the Makuhari Messe convention center. Festival organizers, Creativeman Productions, offered refunds to anyone who couldn’t make it, even though Sonic Mania went ahead as planned and without any artists having to cancel their appearances.

As for Summer Sonic, two international artists, Pink Pantheress and Jon Batiste, did cancel, but it was well before the typhoon formed. As it happened, the storm only caused two other cancellations, rapper-producer Terrace Martin and Korean singer Lee Youngji.

In fact, the biggest weather problem at the festival was the scorching heat that followed in the wake of the typhoon. Temperatures at the main stage in the Zozo Lotte Marines Stadium exceeded 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) Saturday afternoon, though no serious heatstroke incidents were reported.

The most serious medical problem affected some festival staff who had to be transported to hospitals after becoming ill from eating prepared boxed lunches.

As in recent years, Summer Sonic continues to focus more on J-pop and K-pop and gradually less on Western artists, which is what they did when the festival made its permanent home in Chiba and Osaka in 2001.

The most-attended shows of the weekend were Japanese boy bands, some of them formed by the now-disgraced talent agency Johnnys & Associates, which changed its name last year.

But K-pop was a huge component, with at least four acts a day on the major stages, including NCT Dream and Baby Monster. The relatively new K-pop group IVE played an early evening set at the Pacific Stage that had to be closed off after the venue reached capacity shortly before the group took the stage.

The headliners, Italian rockers Måneskin and British hard rock stalwarts Bring Me the Horizon, were initially considered odd choices, since neither had headlined a major festival in the past, but that seemed to be the point.

Creativeman had said it was trying to break the mold for summer festivals by not seeking those stars who normally headline major festivals. Both Måneskin and BMTH have solid fan bases in Japan, but the implication seemed to be that they weren’t necessary by themselves to guarantee high attendance, which is usually what headliners are expected to do.

As it turned out, the confluence of artists worked well for BMTH. The Norwegian singer Aurora was also at the festival with her own show and joined BMTH on stage for their song “Limousine,” since she sings on the original recorded version of the song.

BMTH also brought on Japanese idol trio Babymetal to help them with “Kingslayer,” another recording collaboration actualized at the festival. Babymetal, which did not perform on their own at Summer Sonic, also showed up for the set by Thai heavy rockers Bodyslam on another collaboration, “Leave It All Behind.”

Creativeman Announces Rockin’ On Sonic Fest

Just prior to Summer Sonic, Creativeman announced a new festival to take place at the Makuhari Messe complex in early January called Rockin’ On Sonic.

As the name indicates, the festival is a collaboration between Creativeman and Rockin’ On
magazine, which runs Japan’s biggest rock festival (in terms of sheer attendance), Rock In Japan, which normally happens over several weekends in the suburbs of Tokyo in August and September.

Rockin’ On Japan is a purely domestic affair featuring only Japanese acts, but the artists so far announced for Rockin’ On Sonic are all foreign: Pulp, Weezer, Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream, the Lemon Twigs and Wednesday.

Rockin’ On publishes two rock-oriented magazines: one about Japanese artists and the other about non-Japanese artists.

According to various media outlets, Rockin’ On is promoting the festival with Makuhari Messe while Creativeman will take care of operations and production. The festival will feature two stages.

In a statement that appeared in the online magazine Niew, the show’s producer, Yoichiro Yamazaki, admitted that while the dates for the festival – January 4-5 – were “unusual,” they also offered an opportunity since some people in Japan may still be on vacation and, at any rate, it seems easier to book the kind of major international artists they are looking for.

The festival plans to use the stage setups at the convention center that have already been erected for the annual Countdown Japan blowout, where dozens of Japanese acts welcome the new year.

HONG KONG

Clockenflap Dates Revealed

Hong Kong’s biggest music and arts festival, Clockenflap, announced its 2024 edition on Aug. 15. The three-day festival will take place Nov. 29 to Dec. 1.

No artists have yet been announced but, according to Lifestyleasia.com, the first lineup will be revealed “really soon.”

After being canceled three years in a row, the festival made a big comeback last year with two editions, one in March and another in December.

KOREA

HYBE, Tech Companies Tackle Scalping

In its ongoing mission to nip online ticket scalping in the bud, the K-pop industry in Korea is turning toward high tech.

According to the Korea Times, the country’s leading fintech company, Toss, has teamed up with major entertainment company HYBE, which handles the biggest K-pop act in the world, BTS, among others, as well as the ticket platform InterparkTriple to develop anti-scalping technology.

It is the first time that companies from different industrial disciplines have joined together to address the scalping scourge.

The main idea is to use facial recognition to identify the ticket purchaser during the purchase process and when entering the venue.

The main benefit of such an approach, says Toss, is that it will greatly reduce “the use of automated software for ticket purchases,” thus making it more difficult for scalpers to obtain large amounts of tickets.

In addition, ID checks at venues will be streamlined since ticketholders only need to “walk past a camera” to enter.

Ticket scalping for K-pop concerts and professional baseball games has skyrocketed since the end of the pandemic, prompting the South Korean government to pass a law in March that mandates prison sentences and fines for anyone who uses automated software to obtain tickets that are then sold at inflated prices.

The industry has also adopted the practice of mandatory cancelation of illegally traded tickets.