Creativeman announced today that Supersonic 2020 will be postponed until 2021 due to ongoing concerns over COVID-19.
The music festival was scheduled to take place from Sept. 19 to 21 in Chiba Prefecture and Osaka simultaneously as this year’s replacement for Summer Sonic, which took a year off to avoid conflicting with the now-postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Supersonic’s lineup featured overseas acts such as Liam Gallagher, Skrillex and the Black Eyed Peas, as well as domestic acts including Asian Kung-Fu Generation and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu.
In a statement shared on the Supersonic 2020 website, Creativeman CEO Naoki Shimizu said the company had been trying to hold the event as planned, but “that there have been more and more concerns and fears about travel that were brought to my attention from overseas artists, as well as fears about attending the festival from ticket holders. I decided to draw the line here. We forfeit our battle against Coronavirus.”
A general announcement on the same page referred to Japan’s current border restrictions and recent spikes in COVID-19 cases as to why the festival was postponed.
Supersonic is the latest large-scale music festival in Japan to be postponed or canceled due to the global pandemic. Earlier in the summer, the Fuji Rock Festival in Niigata Prefecture announced plans to postpone its event until 2021. Rock In Japan and Rising Sun Rock Festival in Ibaraki and Hokkaido also decided not to hold their annual events this year.
Before today’s announcement, Creativeman took steps toward making Supersonic as safe as possible. The company organized an online crowdfunding campaign to help protect the gathering from the novel coronavirus. In its online statement, Creativeman said the ¥21 million raised toward this effort will be used for future shows and Supersonic 2021.
The domestic live music industry has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19, with most festivals and large concerts canceled or postponed since late February. In recent weeks, however, smaller shows have been held across the country. This past weekend, a two-day concert in Osaka-Jo Hall called Osaka Music Days!!!, brought in 5,000 attendees on Saturday and 4,000 on Sunday.
Later this month, Osaka will attempt to hold Rush Ball 2020, a festival featuring 20 domestic acts spread out over two days.
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