There’s something special about festivals in Japan. Just the word alone brings up images of goldfish catching games, young couples in yukata, rows and rows of yatai (food stalls), and maybe even fireworks lighting up the sky. While these festivals are fantastic and definitely worth a visit, I’m going to suggest another kind that is every bit as good – the summer music festival.

Summer music festivals probably have a stronger tradition in the west than in Japan, with Woodstock and the Glastonbury Festival in the UK coming to mind. However, these multi-day open air concerts have taken hold in Japan in the last 10 – 15 years and have grown in size and popularity year after year. These days, the top annual festivals draw crowds of over 100,000 and attract some of the biggest names in the world.

The festivals usually run from late morning til late night over 2-3 days, with simultaneous performances spread over multiple stages. There may be a main stage for headlining acts, with another stage devoted to rock bands ten minutes up the hill, or a Japanese pop stage further in the woods, or maybe even an electronic music tent down the road. This of course leads to huge crowds constantly shuffling back and forth between stages to catch their favorite artists, but that is part of the experience too. There is always something good on and you’re free to pack up and head to another area at any time.

There are probably a ton of mid-sized music festivals going on every summer, but there are roughly 4 annual festivals that draw the largest crowds and biggest names – Fuji Rock, Summer Sonic, Loud Park, and Rock in Japan. Fuji Rock is arguably the largest and has been around since 1997. The festival has since moved away from Mt. Fuji to take over the resort town of Naeba, Niigata for a few days every summer. Guests can camp out right on the fair grounds for the whole music festival experience. Summer Sonic has surged in popularity and tends to draw the biggest international stars. This festival is held over 2 days in early August at the same time in both Osaka and Tokyo. The artists performing on Day 1 in Osaka will rush over to perform Day 2 at the Tokyo venue and vice versa. Rock in Japan have comparatively more focus on Japanese artists headlining the show.

Unfortunately, I’ve only been to one day of Summer Sonic Osaka personally, so can only give an account of that.

I had never heard of Summer Sonic at the time, but I love live music so I jumped at the chance when my friends invited me. When tickets came out, they were roughly $140 for one day or $250 for both. There were bands on Day 2 that I wanted to see (The Offspring) but majority rules so we decided to go on Day 1.

On the day of the festival, after a long train ride and longer shuttle bus line-up, we finally made it to the Osaka venue at Maishima, which also happens to be home of the coolest looking incinerator plant ever. Summer Sonic is aptly named.. it was freaking hot! The first thing we did after we arrived was to park ourselves next to one of the mist spraying fans stationed all over the place to cool people off. After we surveyed the area to know which stage to run to between performances, we watched Puffy (of Teen Titans fame in America) at the Park Stage. We also saw SEAMO and AI at this stage later in the day.

We saw B’z on stage in the afternoon, and even though I didn’t know them at the time I was blown away by the guitarist and the vocalist had a real rock-star swagger. Of course now I realize that they’ve been around for ages and how lucky I was to get to see them perform live.

Ocean Stage - Main

Throughout the day, I probably spent close to $30 on bottled water and tea. However, this was essential with the kind of heat and humidity we were trekking through. Proper clothing is also a good idea if you want to avoid getting sunburnt like I did.

In the late afternoon, we went to the Sky Stage for Fall Out Boy, 30 Seconds to Mars, Gym Class Heroes, and my personal favorite Ellegarden. One of the most memorable moments had to be when the Ellegarden vocalist paused in the middle of their set and directed everybody’s attention to the incredible sunset over Osaka Bay behind us. Amazing.

Sky Stage - Gym Class Heroes

As it got late, the headlining acts were starting to play. We saw Gwen Stefani on the Ocean Stage with her Harajuku Girls. My friends stayed there for Avril Lavigne who is pretty popular in Japan. I went back to the Sky Stage to see her (now ex-) husband perform with Sum 41 complete with moshing and everything. Finally, we met back up to see the Black Eyed Peas. At the very end, there were even fireworks to remind everyone that we were at a festival.

All said and done, it was a hard day of play and incredible value for the price. The performances were great, and the crowds really let loose in the festival mood. If you get a chance to check out an open-air サマフェス in Japan go for it. For those interested, the tickets and artist line-ups are usually released in early spring. It looks like The Red Hot Chili Peppers will play at Summer Sonic 2011.

Summer Sonic 2011 Official English Homepage

This article is part of the Feb 2011 edition of the Japan Blog Matsuri, kindly hosted by Reesan over at Loneleeplanet. Be sure to check it out for a lot of interesting reads.

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