Clockenflap is back: Japanese band Hitsuji Bunka will play the Park Stage at the 2023 sold-out Clockenflap Festival in Hong Kong for three nights from March 3 to 5. Hong Kong's biggest outdoor event will return from November 29 to December 2, organisers have announced. (Photo by Ben Marans/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Japan
Typhoon Ampil threatens Summer Sonic
Typhoon Hagibis threatened the Tokyo version of Summer Sonic, Japan's largest urban pop festival, which was held on the weekend of August 17-18 in Chiba city, located due east of Tokyo.
The festival is held simultaneously in Osaka, which was not in Arashi's path, but Tokyo tends to attract nearly twice as many people as Arashi, making it a much bigger event.
However, although the typhoon brought heavy rain and strong winds to the capital area, it remained far from the coast and changed course to the northeast late on August 16.
The weather also affected Sonic Mania, an all-night party that usually takes place on the Friday night before the main festival, which this year featured big names like Underworld, Arca and Young Fathers.
Due to safety measures, train services in the Tokyo area were reduced on August 16th, which may have made it difficult for ticket holders to get to the Makuhari Messe Convention Center in time for the event. Festival organizers Creativeman Productions offered refunds to everyone who couldn't attend, even though Sonic Mania went on as scheduled and no artists canceled their appearances.
As for Summer Sonic, two international artists, The Pink Panthers and Jon Batiste, had cancelled long before the storm hit. In the end, the only two acts to have to cancel due to the storm were rapper and producer Terrace Martin and South Korean singer Lee Yong-ji.
In fact, the festival's biggest weather problem was the heatwave that followed the typhoon: Temperatures at the main stage at Zozo Lotte Marines Stadium topped 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday afternoon, but there were no reports of serious heatstroke.
The most serious health issues occurred among several festival staff who became ill after eating the boxed lunches and had to be taken to hospital.
In recent years, Summer Sonic has maintained its emphasis on J-pop and K-pop and gradually reduced its focus on Western artists, something it did when the festival first took hold permanently in Chiba and Osaka in 2001.
The biggest-drawing shows over the weekend were those by Japanese boy bands, including some formed by Johnny & Associates, the now-disgraced talent agency that changed its name last year.
But K-pop was a big factor, with at least four acts performing on the main stage throughout the day, including NCT Dream and Baby Monster. Relatively new K-pop group IVE performed earlier in the evening on the Pacific Stage, but their performance was cancelled when the venue filled up just before the group was due to take the stage.
Headliners Monesky, an Italian rock band, and Bring Me the Horizon, a British hard rock band, initially seemed like odd choices, as neither had headlined a major festival before, but that seemed to be the point.
Creativeman said they were aiming to break the mold for summer festivals by not inviting stars who usually headline major festivals, seemingly implying that while Måneskin and BMTH both have strong fanbases in Japan, they wouldn't be enough on their own to guarantee the high attendance figures expected of a headliner.
In the end, the collaboration worked out well for BMTH, as Norwegian singer Aurora also took part in the festival with her own show, joining BMTH on stage to sing the original recording of their song “Limousine.”
BMTH also invited Japanese idol trio BABYMETAL to help them produce “Kingslayer,” another recording collaboration that came to fruition at the festival. BABYMETAL, who did not perform alone at Summer Sonic, also appeared on another collaboration, “Leave It All Behind,” with Thai heavy rock band Bodyslam.
Creativeman Announces Rockin' On Sonic Festival
Just before Summer Sonic, Creativeman announced a new festival called Rockin' On Sonic, which will take place at Makuhari Messe in early January.
As the name suggests, the festival is a collaboration between Creativeman and Rockin' On.
The magazine Rock in Japan organises Japan's largest rock festival (in terms of attendance alone), which usually takes place over several weekends in August and September outside Tokyo.
While Rockin' On Japan is a purely domestic event featuring only Japanese artists, the artists previously announced to appear at Rockin' On Sonic are all international, including Pulp, Weezer, Manic Street Preachers, Primal Scream, Lemon Twigs and Wednesday.
Rockin' On publishes two rock magazines, one about Japanese artists and one about international artists.
According to various media reports, Rockin' On will be promoting the festival in collaboration with Makuhari Messe, while Creativeman will be in charge of operation and production. The festival will have two stages.
In a statement published in the online magazine Niew, festival producer Yoichiro Yamazaki acknowledged that while the festival's dates of January 4th and 5th are “unusual,” they also presented an opportunity, as some people in Japan might still be on vacation and, in any case, it would be easier to book the kind of big-name international artists they were looking for.
The festival will use the convention center's stage, which has already been set up for the annual Countdown Japan, where dozens of Japanese artists ring in the new year.
Hong Kong
Clockenflap Dates Announced
Clockenflap, Hong Kong's largest music and arts festival, announced on August 15 that it will take place in 2024. The three-day festival will run from November 29 to December 1.
The performing artists have yet to be announced, but Lifestyleasia.com reports that the initial lineup will be announced “very soon.”
After being cancelled for three consecutive years, the festival made a grand comeback with two events last year, in March and December.
South Korea
HYBE, a tech company, takes action against scalpers
As part of an ongoing effort to prevent online ticket scalping, South Korea's K-pop industry is turning to tech.
According to The Korea Times, South Korea's leading fintech company Toss has partnered with HYBE, a major entertainment company that manages the world's largest K-pop group BTS, and ticket platform InterparkTriple to develop the technology to prevent resale.
This is the first time that companies from different industries have come together to tackle the issue of resale.
The main idea is to use facial recognition to identify ticket buyers during the purchase process and upon entry to the venue.
Toth said the main benefit of such an approach would be that it would significantly reduce the “use of automated software for ticket purchasing,” making it more difficult for scalpers to obtain large quantities of tickets.
Additionally, ID checks at venues will be simplified, as ticket holders will only need to “walk in front of the camera” to enter.
Since the pandemic ended, there has been a surge in ticket resales for K-pop concerts and professional baseball games, and the South Korean government passed a law in March making it mandatory to imprison and fine anyone who uses automated software to obtain tickets and then resell them at inflated prices.
The industry has also introduced the practice of forcibly cancelling tickets that have been traded illegally.
