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 Chiba event takes place every August at the massive
Makuhari Messe convention center, which overlooks
Tokyo Bay, with the main stage located in nearby
Zozo Marine Stadium. In Osaka, the venue is Maishima Sonic Park. At all venues, there is always a large arena main stage and several other smaller stages. In 2011, the festival established Sonicmania, whose focus is on
electronic dance music (EDM). It is held at Makuhari Messe the day before the festival. In 2019,
B'z was announced as the first, and so far only, Japanese headliner in the festival's twenty-year history. The 2020 festival was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, but a truncated version, 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 international DJs were allowed into Japan without having to quarantine despite the quarantine requirement for most other foreign arrivals. == Performances ==