International News: Big Bands Back Down Under, Oasis Faces Flag-Based Backlash In Korea, & More

AUS/NZ News

by Christie Eliezer

AUSTRALIA

Festivals Draw Tool, Strokes, Garbage, Back Down Under After Long Absence

A number of major U.S. acts embraced by Australians will make their long-awaited returns in spring and early summer for two festivals.

Destroy All Lines’ three-city Good Things, which drew 100,000 last year, is bringing back Tool for their first festival headliner here since Big Day Out 2011 and first tour in five years.

Garbage, which count Australia as one of their top 5 markets, are back after almost a decade. Third headliner Weezer was there in 2023.

Elsewhere on the Dec. 5-7 bill, Machine Head will play their first festival set in 13 years and All-American Rejects return after 16 years.

For Harvest Rocks in Adelaide, with a draw of 25,000, The Strokes’ exclusive headliner set Oct. 25 marks their first appearance in the city in almost 22 years, although the NYC outfit played New South Wales’ Splendour In The Grass in 2022.

Next day’s headliner is Jelly Roll as part of his inaugural visit Down Under, with demand forcing Live Nation to add more shows.

Symbiotic Introduces Another EDM Festival

With Australia the third largest EDM market in the world, and EDM festivals more popular Down Under than any other genre, trance event company Symbiotic has added to its list of festivals.

With an Instagram post declaring, “The ground-breaking multi-genre festival you need in your life,” Hypersonic will take place Nov. 29 at Sydney Showground and Nov. 30 at Melbourne’s Showgrounds.

Symbiotic directors DJ Richie McNeill (co-founder of Stereosonic which at its peak drew 280,000 over five cities in 2013) and EDM events creator Janette Bishara, also run Hyperdome, Reminisce, Altitude and Dreamstate.

UNIFIED Music Group Expands Indian Footprint

Melbourne-based multi-division UNIFIED Music Group expanded its presence in India’s live entertainment, firming a joint venture with Mumbai-based promoter 7Entertainment and artist management Startist.

The partnership will work across live touring, artist management and recorded music, to connect artists and audiences in both directions.

UNIFIED founder Jaddan Comerford and 7Entertainment’s Sidhartha Todi met in 2023 outside a Barcelona sold-out show by UNIFIED-managed Vance Joy, and Todi requested a ticket from Comerford’s business partner Rachael Tulloch.

A formal association led to international tours for Radhika Das, ISHAN and Jahnavi Harrison.

Snoop For AFL Grand Final

Snoop Dogg, who performed during the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2022, will play pre-match at the Australian Football League (AFL)’s grand final.

Held Sept. 27 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, it is one of the most high profile of Australia’s sports events. Last year it welcomed 100,013 spectators and was televised to 4 million.

NEW ZEALAND

Final Speakers For Going Global Summit

The final speakers list for the Going Global summit on exporting New Zealand talent saw Pixie Weyand, music festival programmer at SXSW stepping in for Dev Sherlock while The Great Escape’s Adam Ryan has sent his apologies.

The event is organised by Independent Music New Zealand (IMNZ) and the NZ Music Commission Aug. 28-29 in Auckland.

Other new international speakers from the live sector included Mario Stresow of Germany’s FKP Scorpio, Cindy Castillo of Spain’s MadCool, Lau Frias of USA’s Secretly Group, and Moranie Kim of South Korea’s CJ Cultural Foundation.

The large Australian contingent represented BIGSOUND, UNIFIED Artist Management, Aanthologies PR and artist management, and the Dark Mofo and Rising festivals.

New Zealand keynotes are by artists L.A.B, 9Lives, Princess Chelsea, and Gareth Shute from Lil’ Chief Records, with 24 showcases across three stages in the Whammy! and Double Whammy! clubs.

ASIA

by Phil Brasor

JAPAN

Summer Sonic A Smashing Success

Japan’s premiere urban summer music festival, Summer Sonic, held simultaneously at the Zozo Marine Stadium and Makuhari Messe convention center in Tokyo and at the Expo ’70 Commemorative Park in Osaka, was blessed with mostly overcast skies and high temperatures for its two-day run Aug. 16-17. Both venues were sold out, with Tokyo attracting a record 126,000 people for the weekend, which also included the pre-festival Friday night rave, Sonic Mania, featuring The Prodigy, Denki Groove, Perfume, Floating Points and 2Hollis. 

The headliners of the weekend on the main stages were Fall Out Boy and Alicia Keys, who was joined by half a dozen of the biggest female stars of Japanese hip-hop and R&B; though, as has been the case in recent years, the real draws of the weekend were Japanese and K-pop acts, the latter including aespa, i-dle, Woodz, Katseye and Lee Youngji. Mrs. Green Apple, one of the hottest Japanese pop-rock groups of the moment, opened the main Marine Stage on Sunday just before noon and attracted so many people that the organizers had to close the Zozo Marine Stadium right after the performance began. In fact, they unprecedentedly opened seats in back of the stage in order to relieve some of the pressure. Similarly, the Pacific Stage, which hosts hot new J-pop acts as well as a few K-pop artists, was moved this year to a separate exhibition area in the Makuhari Messe complex that the festival hasn’t used in 20 years and was consistently packed, with long lines snaking outside the space during the concerts.

Thematically, the festival’s most creative spot was the Beach Stage in Tokyo, which overlooks Tokyo Bay. On Saturday there was an American R&B/hip-hop flavored sequence that included Digable Planets, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and Common; while the late afternoon sequence on Sunday was given over to a mini-Latin music festival called “Feliz Cumpleaños Ferxxo,” featuring electronica duo Perro Negro, Bomba Estéreo, Tainy and Feid. Conspicuous at the latter was a huge contingent of the Tokyo area’s Spanish-speaking community, a demographic that the lineup was successfully able to draw to the festival. 

Rockin’ On Sonic To Return

Summer Sonic is organized by Creativeman Productions, which also just announced that it will co-host a second Rockin’ On Sonic festival this coming January at Makuhari Messe. The festival, jointly hosted by Rockin’ On Japan, which runs Rock in Japan Festival, the biggest rock festival in Japan in terms of audience numbers, was first held last January shortly after New Years to take advantage of two situations: 1) a potentially large audience that is still enjoying the New Year’s holiday in Japan, and 2) a surfeit of international artists who aren’t necessarily busy at that time of the year. There is also a logistic advantage in that Makuhari Messe is the traditional home of Countdown Japan, a series of all-day concerts at the end of December leading up to a New Year’s Eve climax, and featuring almost all the major domestic pop and rock acts in Japan. In essence, the facility is already prepped for Rockin’ On Sonic.

Rockin’ On Sonic 2026 will take place one day only, Jan. 4, and start at 1:30 p.m. The lineup has yet to be announced but will be rolled out in stages, according to a press release, which also included a statement by general producer Yoichiro Yamazaki: “The first festival was an incredible experience thanks to attendees and artists alike. We’ve learned a lot and are excited to bring an even more concentrated and dynamic event in 2026.”

HONG KONG

Live Nation Slates New Midsize Venue

Live Nation is building a new concert venue in the Whampoa complex of Hong Kong called Tides, which will open by the end of the year. Though mainly constructed for concerts, it will also be available for corporate functions, according to Lifestyle Asia.

Tides will take up the first floor of Whampoa, which is designed to look like an ocean liner. It will hold up to 1,500 people, thus helping to fill a gap in the city’s concert business for mid-sized auditoriums that has been prominent since KITEC closed last year.

Stephanie Bax, president of venue development at Live Nation, said in a statement, “The design prioritizes efficient setup, making it seamless for acts to include Hong Kong in their tour plans. With integrated production and a layout built for audience connection, the venue offers both international and local artists a professional platform to grow their fan base.” Lisa Hui Ping-Sum, chairperson of the Hong Kong Performing Industry Association, added, “A thriving performing industry is at the heart of what makes Hong Kong such a dynamic and inspiring place to live. The launch of Tides can help nurture local talent and enhance the performance scene in Hong Kong.”

Lifestyle Asia notes that most of the other mid-size venues in the city are not specifically designed for music, while Tides “is equipped with built-in sound, lighting and flexible staging.” More significantly, the venue offers artist support areas and lounges for “pre- and post-show gatherings.” Management announced that it expects to host up to 250 events annually. It is also located in one of the most accessible places in Hong Kong. 

KOREA

Oasis Faces Backlash Over Sunburst Symbol

Once again Oasis has angered some of its Asian fans with a promotional gambit for its ongoing tour. This time the offense was felt by Koreans. According to the Korea JoongAng Daily, on Aug. 8, the band released a new “visualizer” for its hit song “Morning Glory” that includes an image of a sun radiating light. While most people will not find it at all objectionable, Korean fans were reminded of the rising sun flag that the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy used during its brutal colonial control of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945. To make things worse, the image was practically in every scene of the video. 

Social media responded with force, asking the Gallagher brothers if they actually knew anything about the history of East Asia. One Korean fan said, “Don’t you have respect while wanting to make money in Korea?” In Korea and China, the image is symbolic of Japanese war crimes. 

The group has not yet responded to the criticism. Liam Gallagher was already in hot water after posting on social media earlier this summer words that are considered racist slurs by Asians, but he eventually apologized. Some local media predict a boycott of the band’s upcoming Korean concert in October, their first in the country since 2009, though so far no reports have been published to that effect.