Just when Bangkok seemed to be in a lull – caught somewhere between monsoon melancholy and midsummer mania – Summer Sonic makes a return like an old flame who shows up dressed better than ever. The festival, a long-standing fixture of Tokyo’s music calendar, is once again packing its bags and heading south. Scheduled for August 23-24, IMPACT Challenger Hall 1-3. Bring earplugs, possibly your therapist.
The second lineup drop, announced with the usual self-congratulatory fanfare, is headlined by Alicia Keys. A household name and 17-time Grammy winner, she’s the kind of artist whose booking signals prestige, not surprise. Her set will no doubt include If I Ain’t Got You, Fallin, and that anthem to aspirational real estate, Empire State of Mind – songs so deeply embedded in the cultural subconscious they no longer provoke reaction, only recognition. Alicia's presence will be hailed as iconic, though it’s difficult not to wonder whether the inclusion of such an established figure reveals the festival’s cautious, nostalgic leanings.
In contrast, CHANYEOL, formerly of EXO, represents a different kind of reassurance – the hyper-curated K-pop export with built-in global fandom. Having successfully pivoted to a solo career with last year’s Black Out, he ticks every commercial box: chart success, sold-out tour, pan-Asian appeal. What his set may lack in spontaneity it will surely make up for in polish – choreography as discipline, emotion filtered through a high-production haze.
Then there’s KickFlip, a name so generically edgy it could have been pulled from a spreadsheet of marketable Gen Z keywords. As JYP Entertainment’s newest boy group, they’re barely out of debut territory but already performing with the industrial precision of a well-oiled brand. Their choreography will be airtight. Their personalities will be carefully portioned out. Whether audiences will remember much beyond the photocard-worthy visuals remains to be seen.
Of all the names on the bill, Kikuo offers the only real hint of subversion. A Vocaloid producer with a cult following and a sonic palette that veers from saccharine to sinister, his work doesn’t so much invite listening as demand it. Songs like You Are a Useless Child and Dance of the Corpses suggest something darker at play – a confrontation with discomfort, dressed in pixelated lullabies. This is not music for the crowd-pleasing masses, which is precisely why it stands out.
Rounding out the line-up is Jeff Satur, the obligatory local inclusion. His sound is contemporary, his fanbase devoted, and his stage presence dependable. Yet there’s an unavoidable sense of tokenism at play – Satur serves more as a box ticked than a centrepiece. Bangkok, it seems, must be reflected, but not necessarily explored.
In the end, Summer Sonic Bangkok 2025 appears to favour spectacle over risk, familiarity over experimentation. It will be loud, it will be large, and it will be liked. But whether it will be remembered – for anything other than scale – is another question entirely.
Pre-sale tickets will be on offer from May 3-26. Entry for a single day starts at B3,800 for general admission, with a two-day option set at B7,000. VIP access is listed at B8,000 for one day and B13,000 for the full weekend. All available via Ticketmelon.