is an annual music festival held on one weekend in August simultaneously in both Chiba (branded as Summer Sonic Tokyo) and Suita (branded as Summer Sonic Osaka), Japan. Organized by Creativeman Productions, Summer Sonic is one of the largest major music festivals in Japan, and features rotating lineups with artists performing one day in Chiba and the following day in Suita, and vice versa. The lineup often features major international acts alongside Japanese artists from major and independent record labels.
The festival was first held in 2000 at the Fuji-Q Highland resort in Yamanashi Prefecture. The festival moved to Chiba in 2001, just east of Tokyo, and has been held simultaneously in Chiba and Osaka since 2002. The festival is often accompanied by separately ticketed overnight events held exclusively in Chiba featuring an EDM-centric lineup, which have been branded variously as Sonicmania or Midnight Sonic. The 2009, 2011 and 2026 editions of the festival were held over three days, while all other editions have been held over two days. International editions of the festival have occasionally been held outside Japan, including Shanghai in 2017 and Bangkok in 2024.
History Summer Sonic Festival was founded in 2000 in Japan, by Naoki Shimizu, CEO of Tokyo promotions company Creativeman Productions Ltd. Addressing the ever-growing demand for western music, the festival drew established and emerging musical acts of most genres to become, by 2010, Japan's biggest music event.
The Tokyo event takes place at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba City, which overlooks Tokyo Bay, with the main stage located in nearby Zozo Marine Stadium, as well as an additional stage located on Makuhari Beach. In Osaka, the festival was first held at WTC Open Air Stadium before moving to Maishima Sports Island in 2007. In 2024, the Osaka event was moved to Expo Commemoration Park in nearby Suita.
In 2017, Summer Sonic held its first event outside of Japan, taking place in Shanghai, China. Placebo was originally was set to be the headline act for day two, but the band was refused entry into the country by the Chinese government after posting a picture of the Dalai Lama; as a result Travis took their place.
In 2011, the festival established Sonicmania, a separately ticketed overnight event focusing on electronic dance music. It is traditionally held at Makuhari Messe the day before the festival. In some years, the festival has instead featured a similar event named Midnight Sonic, which regular festival ticket holders are also permitted to attend.
In 2019, B'z was announced as the first Japanese headliner in the festival's twenty-year history. Further Japanese headliners have included Ado and L'Arc-en-Ciel, both in 2026.
The 2020 festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An abridged version of the festival, branded as 'Supersonic', took place in September 2021 with restrictions in place and a typhoon affecting day one. Possibly because of the logistics of moving people around during a pandemic, the 2021 lineup was mainly electronic. Controversy arose when some foreign DJs were allowed to enter Japan without having to quarantine, despite the quarantine requirement for most other international arrivals.
Summer Sonic celebrated its 25th edition of the festival in 2026, returning to a three-day format for the first time since 2019.
Performances Lineups for the festival in past years are as follows. The artists in bold are the headlining acts for that year.
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010 August 7 Chiba / August 8 OsakaAugust 7 Osaka / August 8 Chiba 3OH!3 A-ha All Time Low Atari Teenage Riot (Chiba only) Beat Crusaders Biffy Clyro Big Mama Broadway Calls Brodinski Calvin Harris Champagne Clammbon The Courteeners Eels Eikichi Yazawa Elliot Minor ET-King Eve FACT Fireball with Home Grown Freebass General Fiasco Gildas Girls The Hiatus Jasmine Jay-Z Keri Hilson K-OS Kreva Kylee The Maccabees Nada Surf Nas Nickelback Northern19 The Offspring Passion Pit Pavement Pedro Winter ('Busy-P') Richard Ashcroft Rock'A'Trench The Smashing Pumpkins Steve Aoki Tahiti 80 Tamurapan (Canceled) Thirty Seconds to Mars Totalfat Uffie Yes Giantess The Young Punx 'te AA= Ai Kago Jazz -The First Door- androp A Tribe Called Quest Band of Horses Band of Skulls Big Bang Bigelf Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Blood Red Shoes Coheed and Cambria Darwin Deez deadmau5 (cancelled) The Devil Wears Prada Die Antwoord Dream Theater The Drums Everlast Everything Everything Fanfarlo Free Energy F.T. Island Funky Monkey Babys Hilcrhyme Hole Hudson Mohawke Jason Derulo Jay'ed Jonsi K'Naan Lecca Low IQ 01 & Masterlow Michael Monroe Monkey Majik My Passion One OK Rock Orianthi The Pillows Pixies Sakanaction Shinsei Kamattechan Slash Steve Appleton Stevie Wonder Sum 41 Surfer Blood Surkin Taylor Swift
2011
August 13 Chiba / August 14 OsakaAugust 13 Osaka / August 14 Chiba Andymori Arrested Development Avril Lavigne The Bawdies Beady Eye Beta Wolf Black Mountain BoA Breakbot Brother Busy Pictionary Cage The Elephant Carte Blanche Cerebral Ballzy Champagne Clementine Death From Above 1979 Def Tech The Downtown Fiction Esben and the Witch Feadz Galaxy Express The Gazette Gush The Horrors Idiotape Kaela Kimura Korn The Love Ningen The Mars Volta Miles Kane The Mirraz Mutemath Nico Touches the Walls OFWGKTA One Draft One Night Only OverTheDogs Oz Perfume The Pretty Reckless Rip Slyme SebastiAn Sharks The Strokes Sunset Rollercoaster Taro Kobayashi These New Puritans Tinie Tempah The Ting Tings Village People Wreckin Squadd Ziggy Marley Black New-new Bootsy Collins and The Funk U Band Bow Wow Wow Crossfaith Deerhunter Fact Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas Friendly Fires The Ghost Spardac Girls' Generation (Special guest) Gypsy & the Cat Hollywood Undead House of Pain James Blunt Johnny Saito The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Little Barrie Maximum the Hormone Metronomy Mona The Morning Benders Mucc Muma & Third Party Negoto Neon Trees One Ok Rock Panic! at the Disco Pay Money to My Pain Perdel The Pop Group Primal Scream (Osaka only) P.i.L. Puro Instinct Queen Sea Big Shark Red Hot Chili Peppers Rival Sons Shibusashirazu Orchestra Smith Westerns Suede The Telephones Totalfat Tribes Two Door Cinema Club Village People X Japan Yanokami Yelle Zebrahead
2012
August 18 (Chiba)/August 19 (Osaka)August 19 (Chiba)/August 18 (Osaka) Adam Lambert Alexandra Stan Begin Bye Bye Octopus Coldrain Crystal Castles Death Cab For Cutie Franz Ferdinand Gotye Green Day Jun Sky Walkers Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Lostprophets Nelly Furtado NewTank (China) One Ok Rock Passion Pit Tavito Nanao Totalfat Sigur Rós The Vaccines Anna Tsuchiya Azealia Banks Babymetal Calvin Harris The Cardigans Cast Champagne Fact Foster The People Garbage Gym Class Heroes Hoobastank Jamiroquai Kesha Lecca Mao Abe Mayday Miliyah Kato Momoiro Clover Z New Order Pay Money to My Pain Perfume Pitbull Rihanna Tears For Fears Vintage Trouble
2013 August 10 Chiba / August 11 OsakaAugust 10 Osaka / August 11 Chiba Alt-J Androp Babymetal Bastille Bullet for My Valentine Champagne Cheap Trick The Church CNBlue Coldrain Fall Out Boy FIDLAR F.T. Island The Gazette The Hiatus Jake Bugg Jagwar Ma Kodaline Linkin Park Living Colour Maximum the Hormone Metallica Mew M.I.A. Nas One Ok Rock Stereophonics (Chiba only) The Stone Roses (Osaka only) Volbeat The 1975 (Chiba only) Babymetal Big Mama BiS Capital Cities Carly Rae Jepsen CN Blue Cyndi Lauper Denki Groove (Osaka only) Earth, Wind, & Fire F.T. Island Fuzzy Control The Gazette Hot Chelle Rae Hunter Valentine Huwie Ishizaki Imagine Dragons John Legend Johnny Marr Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (Chiba only) Kavka Shishido Knock Out Monkey Man with a Mission Modestep (Osaka only) Momoiro Clover Z (Chiba only) Mr. Children Muse Palma Violets Peace Pet Shop Boys (Chiba only) The Pillows The Royal Concept Scandal (Osaka only) Scott & Rivers The Smashing Pumpkins SO.ON Project TOTALFAT Two Door Cinema Club Utopian Committee Willy Moon Zebrahead
2014
August 16 Chiba / August 17 OsakaAugust 16 Osaka / August 17 Chiba The 1975 Arctic Monkeys Avenged Sevenfold Babymetal The Bots Childhood Cibo Matto Coldrain Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas Ghost Jamaica Krewella Megadeth Phoenix Reignwolf Robert Plant Sky Ferreira Suicidal Tendencies Superfly Telegram Twenty One Pilots Vintage Trouble White Lies A Great Big World Avril Lavigne Azealia Banks Banks The Bawdies Ben Watt with Bernard Butler Charli XCX Circa Waves Dreams Come True Ellie Goulding The Horrors Kimura Kaela Kraftwerk 3-D Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Little Mix Mayday Metronomy The Orwells Pixies Queen + Adam Lambert Richie Sambora Robert Glasper Experiment Sekai no Owari Timeflies
2015
August 15 Chiba / August 16 OsakaAugust 15 Osaka / August 16 Chiba All Time Low Androp Ariana Grande Babymetal Best Coast (Chiba only) Bunkface The Chemical Brothers Circa Waves Cody Simpson Dats (Chiba only) Dinosaur Pile-Up Echosmith Exile Shokichi (Osaka only) Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Kazuyoshi Saito (Osaka only) Kodaline Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Madeon Manic Street Preachers Marilyn Manson Marmozets Monoeyes Palma Violets The Prodigy (Osaka only) Radwimps (Chiba only) Slaves Tempura Kidz (Chiba only) Wolf Alice Ayumikurikamaki (Chiba only) Best Coast (Chiba Only) Bleachers BTS Carly Rae Jepsen Cast Char (Osaka only) Clean Bandit D'Angelo and the Vanguard Generations from Exile Tribe (Chiba only) Golden Bomber (Osaka only) Imagine Dragons Kana-Boon (Chiba only) Keytalk Magic! Modestep Naoto Inti Raymi (Osaka only) Man with a Mission (Chiba only) Mew My First Story (Osaka only) Nico & Vinz Nothing But Thieves Olly Murs Passion Pit Pharrell Williams The Script Sheppard Smallpools Walk the Moon Zedd
2016
August 20 Chiba / August 21 OsakaAugust 20 Osaka / August 21 Chiba Acid Black Cherry (Osaka only) Aldious (Chiba only) Alesso Andy Black At the Drive-In Babymetal (Osaka only) Billy Talent Bullet for My Valentine Charlie Puth Coldrain (Chiba only) Digitalism Fergie Gen Hoshino Gesu no Kiwami Otome (Chiba only) The Trio Project feat. Anthony Jackson & Simon Phillips (Osaka only) Joy Opposites Little Glee Monster (Osaka only) NOISEMAKER (band)|NOISEMAKER (Osaka only) The Offspring Panic! at the Disco Pentatonix PVRIS R5 Rat Boy The Struts Tonight Alive Underworld Wednesday Campanella (Chiba only) Weezer The 1975 Alexandros Blossoms Cashmere Cat Elle King Flo Rida Gotch (Osaka only) Haruhi (Chiba only) The Jacksons James Bay King Mark Ronson Mayer Hawthorne Metafive (Chiba only) Misia (Osaka only) MØ Nothing But Thieves POP ETC Radiohead Run River North Sakanaction Shadows (Chiba only) Suede Sunflower Bean Two Door Cinema Club The Yellow Monkey
2017
August 19 Chiba / August 20 OsakaAugust 19 Osaka / August 20 ChibaAugust 26 Shanghai / August 27 Shanghai Above & Beyond 5 Seconds of Summer The Black Eyed Peas Blood Orange Calvin Harris Charli XCX Communions Pikotaro Declan McKenna Denki Groove (Osaka only) Dua Lipa Elephant Kashimashi Gesu no Kiwami Otome (Osaka only) Hey Violet High Tyde José James Justice Kasabian (Chiba only) Kungs LANY Lenny Code Fiction Liam Gallagher (Osaka only) Phoenix Suchmos (Chiba only) Sundara Karma Tsuyoshi Domoto Uverworld Yasutaka Nakata & Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Zara Larsson All Time Low Axwell and Ingrosso Babymetal BLUE ENCOUNT Circa Waves Daya Fear, and Loathing in Las Vegas Foo Fighters The Fratellis