Summer Sonic style!

Summer Sonic Osaka (大阪 ) 2009 initially looked the way a festival should look. Huge blue skies, green grass and cheery people drinking beer and having picnics. It looked like the dictionary definition of a successful music festival. This was partly due to the immaculate grounds and the extremely efficient staff but also to the huge range of delightful clothes on display all around! It’s sometimes hard to look good after navigating your way through a huge crush of people at a tiny train station, queuing for a coach for twenty minutes and then surviving merchandise stalls and extreme heat but everyone looked pretty radiant! Even the staff looked rather trendy in their yellow Summer Sonic T- shirts.

One essential accessory was definitely the shoulder towel. People often carry small face towels or handkerchiefs in the heat over here, but the heat in Osaka called for extra measures. Almost everyone seemed to be wandering round with little towels over their shoulders or in some cases on their head.  Tower Records and Docomo, the mobile phone company, were handing out free ones (yellow and red on white respectively) but there were several available from the merchandise stands including Mogwai and Linkin Park variations. After a good browse I picked up a Unicorn towel in purple and orange. Unfortunately, I soon realised that I could barely stand the band (Japanese dadrock) – but their towel was definitely the coolest nonetheless!

It was often easy to tell which artists the festival goers were there to see. Lady Gaga and Beyonce fans tended to be very well groomed with expertly dyed glossy hair and gold hoop earrings. Nine Inch Nails fans wore black and often sported tattoos and piercings. Linkin Park fans wore a variety of near-identical Linkin Park T-shirts – all black of course. There were lots of very colourful, neon outfits near the dance tents and an overwhelming amount of bikini top and shorts combinations – definitely not something you would normally see a lot of on the average Japanese high street!

Although there were plenty of sharply dressed men, on the whole it was the ladies who were really out to impress at Summer Sonic. A lot of very cute looks were apparent – bows, flowery prints, colourful leggings and shades were on show far and wide. There were a lot of Summer Sonic T-shirts being worn as well. Some clearly purchased on the day and some from festivals gone by. A lot of the nicer (and more expensive t-shirts) came from Paul Smith’s exclusive Summer Sonic stall in the Oasis area. While some people just wore them with shorts or trousers, others managed to incorporate them into a more coherent outfit, particularly the black and white Paul Smith versions.

Undoubtedly, near the end of Summer Sonic it was clear that a good time was had by all. By day three, the once scenic weather took a turn for the worst and the raincoats and umbrellas appeared. Transparent hooded raincoats are great at keeping you dry but they are not particularly interesting to behold! However, everyone was arguably pulling it off thanks to their sunny dispositions. Their Converse were soaked and they were shrink wrapped in their coats, but thanks to their smiles they were still looking happy!

Tags: face towels, festival goers, gold hoop earrings, lady gaga, linkin park fans