Arts & Entertainment

Japan’s Supersonic set to be world’s first post-Covid music festival

Tokyo, Jun 26 (efe-epa).- Japan’s Supersonic music festival is set to become the first large scale musical extravaganza since the world was shaken by the coronavirus pandemic and widespread cancellations ground the global economy and cultural offerings to a halt, organizers announced on Friday.

The music festival is set to kick off in Tokyo on 19 September for three days in Chiba, southwest, and between the 19 and 20 September in Osaka, north.

Headlining the festival are American band Black Eyed Peas who will be joining 90s hip-hop legends Wu-Tang Clan, The 1975 and Brit-pop giant Liam Gallagher.

On the dancefloor, electro music mogul Steve Aoki will be spinning on the decks alongside Fatboy Slim, dubstep maestro Skrillex and Japanese singer and model Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Creativeman productions, the festival organizer, said in a statement Friday.

The festival replaces the iconic Summer Sonic music festival which has been held every summer in the same cities since 2000.

Promoters changed the dates and format of this year’s Summer Sonic so as not to coincide with the Olympic Games that were scheduled to take place in Tokyo in late July and early August, although the sports event has since been called off and rescheduled for the summer of 2021.

The coronavirus has had a massive impact on the world of arts and culture and live performances have been particularly hard hit due to social distancing norms.

In Japan, the iconic Fuji Rock festival was called off and music aficionados around the world mourn the absence of the United Kingdom’s Glastonbury Festival which would have taken place this weekend.

Amid the uncertainty, Creativeman launched a crowdfunding campaign to “guarantee that the event would be held and that it would have the necessary security measures.”

The production company has managed to raise around $ 112,000 through online giving and will allocate the funds to “coronavirus control measures” such as ensuring enough digital thermometers are available to do temperature checks on all attendees and providing dispensers with hand sanitizer, among other measures, the company said.

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