Before Ado took the stage at Summer Sonic last week, the screen flashed a series of angry social media posts: “this isn’t rock,” “not up to the level.” They were reactions to the announcement that the J-pop singer would replace American rapper A$AP Rocky as the festival’s Saturday headliner.
Then came the opening riff to “Enter Sandman” by past headliner Metallica. Ado ripped into a cover of the rock staple, turning the moment into a defiant declaration that she belonged on the Marine Stage. If there was any doubt, the metal band sang her praises on X a few days later.
It was one of many memorable moments at the 25th edition of Summer Sonic, held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture and Expo ’70 Commemorative Park in Osaka from Aug. 14 to 16. According to event organizer Creativeman, a total of 198,000 people attended the festival in Tokyo while an additional 110,000 were in Kansai.
The 25th anniversary was a packed celebration that came amid growing unease surrounding Creativeman’s flagship event and Japan’s festival landscape at large. The weak yen has made bagging international headliners increasingly expensive, and the festival’s traditional reliance on big-name overseas acts has become harder to sustain.
And then there was the storm. Chiba Prefecture experienced record rainfall the night before Summer Sonic was set to begin, with trains stopped and parts of Makuhari Messe converted into a shelter (albeit sections not used for the event).
Creativeman announced Friday morning that the show would go on, though the unpredictable weather delayed festivalgoers and contributed to a lackluster crowd for idol group West.’s 11 a.m. opening set.
Meanwhile, the outdoor Beach Stage resembled a swamp. Still, many braved the puddles in the afternoon to catch J-rockers Indigo La End and American funk project the RH Factor.
Friday evening set the tone for the weekend ahead. As has increasingly been the case this decade, Japanese acts attracted the biggest crowds. Alt-rock band Bump of Chicken packed Zozo Marine Stadium for the stage’s penultimate set, with fans belting along with vocalist Motoo Fujiwara.
Non-Japanese acts, meanwhile, called on local names for added pizzazz. American R&B singer Keshi brought out girl group Hana on the Marine Stage to much excitement, while later that night DJ Steve Aoki invited idols Candy Tune to join him.
International acts leaned heavily into spectacle. On the Sonic Stage, experimental pop star FKA Twigs performed with a bevy of backup dancers, who spun at dizzying velocity on two poles. Elsewhere, on the Mountain Stage, Jennie of K-pop group Blackpink attracted one of the day’s largest crowds with a closing set built around a multitiered stage, dancers and high-concept visuals.
Jennie’s performance and audience starkly contrasted with the traditional closer on the Marine Stage. New York rockers The Strokes delivered an uneven, frequently self-conscious set Friday night to a stadium that was just over half-full.
“Can you guys keep it down, we’re trying to focus,” lead singer Julian Casablancas said sarcastically after a lukewarm reaction to a song. It was less grating than his 2023 Fuji Rock performance, when he interrupted The Strokes’ set with jokes about his rock-star past. Still, Casablancas came off as insecure throughout, sucking the energy out of the stadium with his quips.
It’s tempting to see The Strokes’ headlining set as a relic, especially beside the pop performances drawing a much younger crowd. Yet something was also missing from FKA Twigs and Jennie: The music often felt secondary to the production, with fans reacting louder to Jennie’s between-song chat than to her songs, the whole scene seeming to function as little more than a backdrop for an Instagram post.
Despite their issues, The Strokes played hits. Watching people rush toward the stage when “Hard to Explain” started, or seeing a man in his 40s stand up and let out an ecstatic shriek when the band launched into “Reptilia” — those felt like headlining moments.
Theme park in the making
The rest of the weekend brought younger international acts and plenty of surprises, with upbeat English rock duo Good Neighbours packing a room on Saturday and singer Sekou doing the same Sunday. South Korean electronic act Night Tempo brought out Morning Musume’s Maki Goto to perform the group’s peppy “Love Machine,” while English singer Elmiene had Kaze Fujii join him on keyboard for “Comets + Gold.”
“Konnichiwa!” screamed American rap-rocker mgk (Machine Gun Kelly) from the Marine Stage, adding an expletive, before delivering a Limp Bizkit-coded set on Saturday. “We’re about to make you into a bunch of sushi rolls.”
The festival offered something for everyone. Babymetal curated a “metal” stage Sunday that featured a wider range of heavy music, leading up to a headbanging performance from the trio themselves. The Beach Stage hosted Latin pop on Saturday and an endearing celebration of 1990s dance Sunday, with German unit the Real McCoy reveling in the chance to revisit their heyday for a curious crowd.
“None of you were born, don’t worry,” Olaf Jeglitza said when introducing deeper cuts before running into the crowd to high-five fans.
These moments offered a glimpse of a future in which Summer Sonic becomes more comfortable with its eclecticism and fully embraces its vibe as a music festival theme park. For now, at least, the big Western names still did matter — at least the older ones.
While younger names like U.S. YouTuber Alex Warren drew modest crowds, Jamiroquai’s festival-closing blowout on the Mountain Stage was shoulder to shoulder, with people grooving along to nearly two hours of funk.
The night prior, David Byrne did the same with a higher-concept theatrical show mixing solo songs, Talking Heads tracks and politically minded spoken interludes.
“Love and kindness are the most punk things you can do now,” he told the crowd.
Tapping Japanese talent
The festival also leaned further into Asian acts, with K-pop heavyweights Babymonster and Le Sserafim alongside the folk-tinged euphoria of brother-sister duo AKMU, as well as Thai pop trio Pixxie and Filipino acts SB19 and Bini, representing “P-pop.”
At the same time, the Summer Sonics of tomorrow will likely be more Japanese. That’s not solely because of the yen’s value: The biggest crowds this year came out for domestic names such as Kento Nakajima, Hitsujibungaku and Suchmos.
Most revealing of all was Hana, the girl group that just a year earlier played a four-song set on the much smaller Pacific Stage. This year, they opened the Marine Stage at 11 a.m. and drew crowds nearing the size of NewJeans and Mrs. Green Apple in recent years. More startling was their newfound confidence, zigzagging between bombastic pop and midtempo fare like their hit “Blue Jeans” on a stage covered in roses.
At one point, the members asked who was seeing them for the first time. About 80% of the stadium crowd screamed back. Despite taking place in the morning, this performance felt headliner-ready.
The same could be said for Sakanaction later Saturday on the Mountain Stage. Summer Sonic has become adept at booking domestic acts at the right moment, and the rock quintet was very much in the zeitgeist following its 2025 hit “Kaiju” and the viral resurgence of 2012’s “Yoru no Odoriko” (“Night Dancer”). It was the most crowded I’d ever seen the stage, with Sakanaction playing all its biggest hits to an audience responding with incredible energy.
The festival proved that Japanese artists can hold the big spots down: They have the confidence and can deliver the spectacle needed to headline. Sunday closer L’Arc-en-Ciel was a reminder that there are plenty more domestic legacy acts to tap, too.
The rockers, celebrating their 35th anniversary this year, attracted a massive crowd ready to mosh and scream along with vocalist Hyde. Every song sparked excitement among the cross-generational audience, rapt for a commanding performance of nearly two hours.
“We are headliners,” Hyde snarled into a camera at one point, as if speaking for a growing roster of Japanese acts ready for the spotlight.
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