Aug 22, 2019 (Japan Times) - It has always been a mystery why Summer Sonic is not held in the relative cool of June or July, but at the very height of summer, when the August sun beats down upon the festival’s outdoor stages or typhoons power through the country, threatening disruption and cancellations to the event’s packed schedule.
And yet, each year, countless music lovers descend upon the Tokyo and Osaka iterations of the three-day festival, which this year celebrated its 20th anniversary before a planned hiatus for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Though actual celebrations of the anniversary were in short supply on the ground, this year’s lineup was a bumper one, with a plethora of stadium-filling acts on a roster with excellent depth, including international superstars Red Hot Chili Peppers, home favorites Sakanaction, kawaii-metal darlings Babymetal, pop-duo The Chainsmokers and B’z, the best-selling Japanese group in history.
It was the Friday shows that suffered the worst from Typhoon Krosa, with Tokyo’s Beach Stage being canceled due to winds whipping up the sand on the beach into blinding dust storms. For the rest of the weekend, the main difficulty was the heat — a number of attendees were seen fainting with heat-related ailments over the weekend. And with temperatures approaching 37 degrees celsius in the shade, a special mention must go to the sadist who printed this year’s Summer Sonic T-shirt on black.
Highlights of the festival included neo soul and jazz prodigy Robert Glasper’s collaboration with Yasiin Bey (the artist formerly known as Mos Def), which was notable as much for its relentless groove as its juxtaposition with heavy metal outfit Maximum the Hormone, which played to a packed out Marine Stage immediately before Glasper’s enviable quintet; this year’s lineup catered to everyone.
