6 days ago
The early bird gets the bangers at this year's Summer Sonic
You'll have to wake up early to catch the heavy-hitters at this year's Summer Sonic.
The festival, held simultaneously in Chiba and Osaka, has been sliding marquee names from J-pop and K-pop into earlier slots in recent years, a tactic that draws massive crowds before the temperatures hit their highs. For the 2025 edition, running Aug. 16 and 17, promoter Creativeman is doubling down, offering a new idea of what a summer festival can look like.
In Chiba, J-pop provides the wake-up call. On Saturday, boy band SixTones hits the main Marine Stage at 11 a.m., followed by LiSA at noon — where she's sure to perform songs from the mega-popular 'Demon Slayer' series. Sunday starts even bigger: Mrs. Green Apple, arguably Japan's most popular act right now, opens the day, followed by the one-two punch of JO1 and Be:First.
Osaka gets its own early-bird exclusives. Saturday kicks off with K-pop group Treasure ahead of BE:First and girl group NiziU, while Sunday morning belongs to Ae! Group, making its Summer Sonic debut.
Afternoons still pack firepower. Rap-pop newcomer Hana — whose debut single 'Rose' and ballad 'Blue Jeans' are among the year's biggest hits — takes Chiba's Pacific Stage at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. On Sunday, neo-idol force Fruits Zipper brings kawaii-charged pop to the Sonic Stage at 12:30 p.m.
This scheduling makes for a summer festival loaded with 2025 powerhouses. Meanwhile, official headliners Fall Out Boy and Alicia Keys are sure to stir Millennial nostalgia for summer festivals of the past — even if they feel like echoes of an era built on international imports rather than the country's current pop reality.
One foreign act could upend that dynamic. Sunday night's penultimate Marine Stage set comes from aespa, the K-pop group whose sleek, house-infused 'Whiplash' dominated last year. If the crowd's energy holds, it might be the weekend's true main event.
Korean artists are well-represented at Summer Sonic this year, with singer-songwriter Woodz and rock band The Rose closing out Saturday on the Pacific Stage. Thai pop gets a rare spotlight via high-energy boy band Bus and balladeer Jeff Satur, giving space to one of the continent's rising music scenes.
For spectacle, though, Babymetal will be unbeatable. The metal-meets-idol icons play Saturday night on the Mountain Stage, a week after dropping a new album. Expect the usual mosh pit chaos, followed by The Prodigy's aggressive electronic assault to close the stage for the night.
That British electronic act will also appear at Sonicmania, the all-night Makuhari Messe blowout on Friday, arguably the year's most stacked single day of programming. The lineup veers from the theatrical menace of Gesaffelstein to the kinetic beats of Floating Points and genre-twisting newcomer 2hollis.
And that's just the overseas contingent. Sonicmania's domestic slate swings from Vocaloid wizard Kikuo and electro-pop veterans Perfume to disorienting rapper Tohji and rave revivalists Minna-no-Kimochi.
Summer Sonic offers Japan's mainstream; Sonicmania delivers its experimental fringe — and if you pace yourself on Friday, you can still make the Marine Stage for the morning's pop blitz.
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