Because We Wanna Dance!
August 17, 2014 - Summer Sonic - Osaka
For our first full day in Japan, we had pretty exciting plans of attending a music festival in Osaka. With all my traditional festival posts, you may be thinking this was some sort of traditional Japanese music but you are wrong! This was SUMMER SONIC! Summer Sonic had been going on for a few years now and happens in the big cities of Osaka and Tokyo. The big headliners this year were Queen and Artic Monkeys. There were also many big acts such as Ellie Goulding, Banks, Mogwai, Krewella, Megadeath and Phoenix. Along with international acts that everyone would know, there were also Japanese acts that were completely new to me such as Babymetal or Tokio. The range of music seemed to go from Indie to Chill then Metal to J-Pop. We were both excited to go to a festival in another country since we often would go to them back home. I really was interested to see the differenced in festival goers from here versus the States.
The festival grounds were a bit outside the city. They were actually really close to Kaiyukan. Summer Sonic is a two day event but being that Bao had just gotten in the day before, we had to go on Sunday the 17th. This day had acts such as Krewella, Phoenix, Artic Monkeys, Babymetal and Mogwai. We were a bit bummed because the acts we preferred to see were on Saturday but we figured there would be many new artists to see and wandering and checking out different things would be the day's plan. The festival consisted of four main stages. Along withe the four main stages there was also a dance area that ended up being on of the most entertaining areas for us.
The day was hot and the grounds were filling up with people. We had arrived there around noon to have enough time to scope out the area before any acts came on that we wanted to see. Like festivals back home, there were food vendors, alcohol, open space for people and dancing, good vibes and smiling faces. But along with the obvious similarities, there were also differences that were hard to miss.
I am not sure if this is only because this was my first Japanese music festival, but I noticed that the grounds were really clean!! I am so accustomed to festival grounds being littered with beer cans, food waste, and trash but at Summer Sonic, all the trash and bottles were only in the bins! And not only were they just one type of bin. There were multiple bins for different things like plastic, food waste, and paper. The organization of waste and even cigarette butts was really on point. Another difference I noticed was even though alcohol was sold, I didn't see a bunch of wasted people stumbling around. The vibe at the festival was also much more genuine. Many of the acts were in English so the fact that many of the festival goers probably didn't even understand the song but still came and paid to go to the event was pretty awesome for me. When I hang out with my Japanese friends and we listen to English music, I ask them if they understand the words and they often say no. Even though they don't understand the words, they choose to listen to the music because the like to emotion or sound of the song. So with an atmosphere that was purely love for the music, it made the air much more friendly and less about cliques, who was wearing what, or being seen. People would dance so freely and just be, it was really nice.
One of my favorite parts of this festival was the small dancers stage they had. It wasn't featured on the line up nor did it have large acts that performed on this stage. This stage was for dancers only. It was amazing! There were acts after acts of Japanese performers dancing to hip hop and RnB music! Bao and I were already jammin to the music being played and seeing these Japanese ladies and men who were dressed from head to toe in hip hop gear was amazing! Down to the moves, the braided hair, darker skin, and choice of clothes, this stage brought energy and beats that were wildly entertaining.
The last act of the day was Phoenix. They played at the only indoor stage of the festival and it was really packed because it was in the last time slot. The whole day was really fun. I was happy I got to finally go to a music festival, dance, and just be surrounded by musical energy and with a person I really care about. By the end of the day we caught most of the big acts as well as some new ones. It was fun but exhausting and by 9:30 pm we were ready to hit the sack! I was really happy I got to add Japan to my list of festival locations though. Hopefully this will be one of more to come!!
xx
t
For our first full day in Japan, we had pretty exciting plans of attending a music festival in Osaka. With all my traditional festival posts, you may be thinking this was some sort of traditional Japanese music but you are wrong! This was SUMMER SONIC! Summer Sonic had been going on for a few years now and happens in the big cities of Osaka and Tokyo. The big headliners this year were Queen and Artic Monkeys. There were also many big acts such as Ellie Goulding, Banks, Mogwai, Krewella, Megadeath and Phoenix. Along with international acts that everyone would know, there were also Japanese acts that were completely new to me such as Babymetal or Tokio. The range of music seemed to go from Indie to Chill then Metal to J-Pop. We were both excited to go to a festival in another country since we often would go to them back home. I really was interested to see the differenced in festival goers from here versus the States.
The festival grounds were a bit outside the city. They were actually really close to Kaiyukan. Summer Sonic is a two day event but being that Bao had just gotten in the day before, we had to go on Sunday the 17th. This day had acts such as Krewella, Phoenix, Artic Monkeys, Babymetal and Mogwai. We were a bit bummed because the acts we preferred to see were on Saturday but we figured there would be many new artists to see and wandering and checking out different things would be the day's plan. The festival consisted of four main stages. Along withe the four main stages there was also a dance area that ended up being on of the most entertaining areas for us.
The day was hot and the grounds were filling up with people. We had arrived there around noon to have enough time to scope out the area before any acts came on that we wanted to see. Like festivals back home, there were food vendors, alcohol, open space for people and dancing, good vibes and smiling faces. But along with the obvious similarities, there were also differences that were hard to miss.
I am not sure if this is only because this was my first Japanese music festival, but I noticed that the grounds were really clean!! I am so accustomed to festival grounds being littered with beer cans, food waste, and trash but at Summer Sonic, all the trash and bottles were only in the bins! And not only were they just one type of bin. There were multiple bins for different things like plastic, food waste, and paper. The organization of waste and even cigarette butts was really on point. Another difference I noticed was even though alcohol was sold, I didn't see a bunch of wasted people stumbling around. The vibe at the festival was also much more genuine. Many of the acts were in English so the fact that many of the festival goers probably didn't even understand the song but still came and paid to go to the event was pretty awesome for me. When I hang out with my Japanese friends and we listen to English music, I ask them if they understand the words and they often say no. Even though they don't understand the words, they choose to listen to the music because the like to emotion or sound of the song. So with an atmosphere that was purely love for the music, it made the air much more friendly and less about cliques, who was wearing what, or being seen. People would dance so freely and just be, it was really nice.
One of my favorite parts of this festival was the small dancers stage they had. It wasn't featured on the line up nor did it have large acts that performed on this stage. This stage was for dancers only. It was amazing! There were acts after acts of Japanese performers dancing to hip hop and RnB music! Bao and I were already jammin to the music being played and seeing these Japanese ladies and men who were dressed from head to toe in hip hop gear was amazing! Down to the moves, the braided hair, darker skin, and choice of clothes, this stage brought energy and beats that were wildly entertaining.
The last act of the day was Phoenix. They played at the only indoor stage of the festival and it was really packed because it was in the last time slot. The whole day was really fun. I was happy I got to finally go to a music festival, dance, and just be surrounded by musical energy and with a person I really care about. By the end of the day we caught most of the big acts as well as some new ones. It was fun but exhausting and by 9:30 pm we were ready to hit the sack! I was really happy I got to add Japan to my list of festival locations though. Hopefully this will be one of more to come!!
xx
t
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