Features
235K For Summer Sonic
Total attendance for the 16th annual Summer Sonic festival, which was held simultaneously in Osaka and Tokyo Aug. 15-16, was 235,000 in terms of daily admissions as reported by promoter Creativeman Productions.
Photo: facebook.com/summersonicfestival
Broken down by day and venue, it came to 25,000 people for the pre-festival Tokyo rave known as Sonicmania, 58,000 for Saturday and 52,000 for Sunday in Tokyo, not to mention the 20,000 people who attended the first-ever Hostess Club All-Nighter in Tokyo.
Osaka’s numbers were 35,000 for Saturday and 37,000 for Sunday, with 8,000 showing up for its own Osaka Midnight special. The big draws for the weekend were Ariana Grande, Chemical Brothers, Pharrell, Carly Rae Jepsen, Zedd and local idol favorites Babymetal, completing the festival’s evolution from a showcase for hard rock/foreign indie bands to a mostly big-name international pop event.
Last-minute cancellations included Passion Pit and Deerhunter. The latter group was supposed to kick off the All-Nighter and was a late addition anyway.
Thom Yorke‘s electronic extravaganza Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, featuring producer Nigel Godrich, attracted a certain amount of world attention when the Radiohead chief debuted three new solo songs during his initial concert in Osaka. The Tokyo festival offered eight stages, including the new Park Stage sponsored by Red Bull, which offered Japanese hard rock bands for those who missed the old Summer Sonic vibe. The festival also offered a new VIP service.
People who paid premium prices for tickets were given access to a special section near the stage, as well as other amenities throughout the festival grounds. Creativeman also used the festival to announce that it would be presenting Janet Jackson in November for two concerts at the