Livestream! Schedule! Floor Plan! Merchandise!

Hi gang

We’re almost there! The big day is tomorrow, and everyone at the Summer of Sonic staff is scrambling to set up our biggest show yet! We wanted to make sure you had all of the final details we wanted to share with you before the event starts.

Tickets

A final reminder, to please make sure you register and activate your tickets at http://hub.summerofsonic.com/ – without a valid ticket, you may be refused entry and we do not want that! Once registered on-site, you can print off your ticket or load up a mobile version so we can scan your barcode at the door. It’s incredibly easy to do and doesn’t take very long. Please make sure you do this! If you have any problems, please contact support@summerofsonic.com.

Livestream!

We will be recording the entire day’s events – both on the main ‘Sonic’ Stage and on the smaller ‘& Knuckles’ Stage, so we can keep a snapshot of everything that happens on the day. But the main area surrounding the ‘Sonic’ Stage will also be streamed live – so if you cannot make it to Summer of Sonic in person, you can see all of the main activity from the comfort of your own home.

You can watch the livestream on YouTube here, or on Twitch here. We will also include an embedded video on the Summer of Sonic website

A note for those who are attending Summer of Sonic: You will be entering an event that will feature live recording that will both be stored on tape and streamed in an unmoderated fashion over the internet. By attending Summer of Sonic, you consent to be included in any and all broadcasts produced by Summer of Sonic, both live and recorded. If you do not wish to be seen on our livestream or recordings, you should contact a member of Summer of Sonic staff once entering the venue. Further details can be found in our Terms and Conditions of entry included on your ticket.

Schedule!

We have a lot going on during the day, so let us give you some advance warning so you can plan around all the activities we have.

Sonic Stage:
10:00 – Doors open
10:40 – 10:45 – Countdown
10:45 – 11:00 – Introduction / Welcome
11:15 – 11:45 – Mike Pollock Q&A
12:00 – 12:30 – Never Mind the Buzzbombers
13:45 – 14:15 – Jam With Jun
14:45 – 15:30 – Yuji Naka & Takashi Iizuka Q&A
15:30 – 15:45 – Happy Birthday Sonic
15:45 – 16:00 – Sonic Jump Event
16:00 – 16:10 – Art Contest Winners
16:15 – 16:45 – Cosplay Contest Finalists
17:00 – 17:15 – Summer of Sonic Signoff
17:15 – 18:00 – Club Sonic
18:00 – 19:00 – Crush 40 Performance
19:00 – Convention Ends

& Knuckles Stage:
11:15 – 11:45 – Sonic Community Panel
12:30 – 13:00 – Sonic the Comic Q&A
15:00 – 16:00 – Cosplay Contest Entrants
16:00 – 16:30 – History of Summer of Sonic

Signing Desk:
11:00 – 12:00 – Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka
13:30 – 14:15 – Mike Pollock
14:30 – 15:30 – Jun Senoue and Johnny Gioeli
16:00 – 17:00 – Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka

If you are holding a VIP Ticket, you will be allowed access to a backstage meet and greet session with a number of our special guests! This will take place from 12:45 – 13:15. We will collect VIP guests who wish to participate in this session from the Signing Desk at 12:40. Please do not be late!

Floor Plan!

This floor plan will be included in your Summer of Sonic 2016 programme, but we thought it would be nice for you to see it before the day so you know ~~where Sonic Mania is and you can rush to it~~ where everything is and don’t get lost on the day itself.

Merchandise!

Yes, as with previous years you will be able to visit our grand merchandise stand at Summer of Sonic 2016, courtesy of our friends at Sonic Merchandise. There will be a large range of branded products for you to buy and walk home with, so feel free to have a look! We may also have some cool Sonic clothing that you can take a sneak peek at…

Upon entry to Summer of Sonic 2016, you will also receive a goodie bag which will include a programme for the day’s events and a couple of freebies. Use the bag to dump all of your purchased goods into so you don’t have to carry a mountain around with you on the day!

We can’t wait to see you guys on the day! Take care, and we’ll see you soon!

Svend, Adam and the Summer of Sonic Team

Sonic Jump Fever Crowd Event and Sonic Dash Extreme at Summer of Sonic!

Hi everyone! We have a couple of special follow-up announcements related to our awesome guests at Hardlight today.

SONIC JUMP FEVER STAGE EVENT – ‘EVERYBODY JUMP’

Hardlight’s producer of Sonic Jump Fever, James Booth, will hit the stage to excite the Summer of Sonic Crowd and show you something really cool. To see what it is, you’re going to have to do three things:

Make sure you install ‘Sonic Jump Fever’ onto your iOS or Android mobile device. Bring this device with you to Summer of Sonic.
Play and complete the tutorial section of ‘Sonic Jump Fever’ before you attend Summer of Sonic.
When Hardlight come on stage at Summer of Sonic, the crowd will need to open up the ‘Sonic Jump Fever’ app and work together to JUMP at the same time! This will then kick off a competition where the winner will get exclusive SEGA goodies!

Be sure to come prepared!

SONIC DASH EXTREME

Not only will Hardlight be bringing two of their star producers, but they will also be bringing with them a Sonic Dash Extreme arcade pod, which will be available for visitors to play. Try and beat each other’s high score – but form an orderly line and play nice with others!

Not long to go now until the big day! See you there!
Svend & Adam

Introducing Our Final Guest…

What kind of Sonic the Hedgehog convention would we be without inviting the big man himself? That’s right, at Summer of Sonic 2016 you’ll get the chance to meet and get a photo with the one true blue blur, Sonic the Hedgehog!

You will find Sonic wandering around the show floor at various times of the day; the following times are subject to change but if you want to find him then this is your best bet:

10:15 – 10:55
11:30 – 12:10
13:30 – 14:10
16:30 – 17:10

Sonic will also be on stage for a special birthday celebration at 15:30, so be sure you don’t miss that! We’re only a couple of days away, and we can’t wait to see you all on Saturday!

Svend & Adam

VERY IMPORTANT: TICKET RELEASE UPDATE

Hi everyone!

You might be following us on social media (on Twitter we’re @summerofsonic, on Facebook our Page URL is /summerofsonic/), where we have made announcements on this already, but just in case you didn’t see them – we have released our tickets for the Summer of Sonic 2016!

Access your ticket for entry to Summer of Sonic, by logging into our hub site at hub.summerofsonic.com and visiting the Your Ticket page. You’ll also find more information on visiting SoS on the site.

You will need to do this in order to gain entry to the show. If you cannot produce your ticket on the day, you might not be allowed in, so it is very important that you sort this out at your earliest convenience. Tickets can either be printed off, or you can activate it online and log in on the day using a mobile device for our door staff to scan.

If you haven’t been able to get into your account yet, you can reset your password at https://hub.summerofsonic.com/auth/password/reset – please feel free to contact us at support@summerofsonic.com if you’re having trouble.

Thanks for your patience on this one – it’s been a long rough road, but we’re finally here!

See you on Saturday!
Svend, Adam and Ian

GUEST ANNOUNCEMENT: Yuji Naka

Do you remember, waaay back when we held a Kickstarter campaign to make Summer of Sonic 2016 happen (it feels like so long ago), we had a third stretch goal that we didn’t quite make?

Summer of Sonic ended up raising £31,625. Close, but no cigar… BUT, that wasn’t the end of the story. The team behind this year’s show clubbed together post-campaign to plump up the extra cash needed to secure a very special guest, who we are extremely proud to announce to you today.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the return of former Sonic Team head and original programmer of Sonic the Hedgehog, Yuji Naka, to Summer of Sonic!

Naka-san previously attended Summer of Sonic 2011, to celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog’s 20th Anniversary – and now he’s returning to see the blue blur into his 25th. For many fans, Naka-san is a hero who programmed some of their favourite video games as a child; even during the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast era, the developer was behind some of the most iconic non-Sonic games of the time, including NiGHTS into Dreams and Phantasy Star Online.

Today, Naka-san leads his own independent studio called Prope, but still loves the hedgehog he helped create.

This announcement completes our headline guest roster, which includes legendary Sonic Team head and current Sonic producer, Takashi Iizuka! During the day, the two superstars will be available to meet and greet at the signing desks, and taking part in a special Q&A on the main stage where we discuss Sonic’s past, present and future.

Do You Have a Question for Iizuka-san and Naka-san?

We are accepting fan questions for the Iizuka-san and Naka-san Q&A panel that will take place live on stage. If you have a question, please post it as a comment to this post. While we can’t ask every question, we will do our best to fire the most interesting ones to Naka-san and Iizuka-san.

This is a rare opportunity to get your most burning question about Sonic answered by the two men behind Sonic’s past and future, so make sure you don’t miss your chance!

Guest Announcement: Hardlight Studios

You thought we had run out of guests to announce, right? Well, we’re not done yet! We’re excited to reveal two new special guests for Summer of Sonic 2016, and you might know them for their hard work behind some of the apps you may have sitting in your mobile device.

Introducing Hardlight Studios, the UK-based developer that brought you Sonic Jump, Sonic Dash and Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom. Hardlight Studios is celebrating a huge milestone this year – 200 Million Downloads for Sonic Dash – and will be celebrating at SoS with a surprise on stage!

You will also get a chance to meet and greet with James Booth, the producer of Sonic Dash and Sonic Jump Fever, and Ruby Urlings, the producer of Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom, at a dedicated table area within the show floor. There will be exclusive Sonic Dash posters available, specially printed for Summer of Sonic, that James and Ruby will be able to sign for you too.

James and Ruby are also huge Sonic fans, just like us, so feel free to chat to them about their favourite games (besides their own, of course). We look forward to hosting Hardlight at Summer of Sonic 2016!

Event Announcement: Jam With Jun!

Hey all!

Hope you are all still hyped from our announcement that Sonic Mania will be playable at Summer of Sonic 2016! We will have more details on this very soon.

With less than two weeks to go, we have another event announcement today!

We are ecstatic to announce that Summer of Sonic will once again play host to one of our most popular mid-day events ever: Jam With Jun! Jun Senoue will be taking to the Summer of Sonic main stage, this time to perform some of the most memorable and rockin’ songs from the Sonic Adventure era!

We want you guys to join in on vocals, so bring along those singing voices!

Tickets!

Tickets will be issued imminently! Thank you all for your patience on this; they should (barring any major technical hitches!) be issued this week, as we are adding the finishing touches to the issuing system. We appreciate you are eager to get them!

Once issued, you will be able to either print off a physical ticket which you will need to bring with you to the event, or if you have a mobile device, you can access your mobile ticket through your internet browser and show this at the door instead.

…and yet we still have more to announce! Stay tuned!

Adam & Svend

Event Announcement: Mike Pollock Q&A With Turbo Drive Live!

Greetings ladies and gentlemen! John “Turbo” Finlay here, host of SEGASonic Radio live show ‘Turbo Drive Live’.

It’s my pleasure to announce that Summer of Sonic 2016 will play host to a special one-on-one Q&A with one of the longest-running English voice actors currently active in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Mike Pollock. While best known for his portrayal of Sonic’s arch nemesis, Dr Eggman, for thirteen years and counting, Mike is also known for his talents in the Sonic Boom TV series as Mayor Fink and Fastidious Beaver.

Join me and Mike in this special Q&A, where we take a look back at his life and career – finding out how the boy from New York grew up to start his media career, which would lead to a break into anime voice acting, right up to his time with 4Kids and the present day.

I hope to see you all there, when the Scotsman meets the Eggman in this very special one-off show.

Play Sonic Mania and More at Summer of Sonic’s Game Zone

It’s been a very exciting weekend for Sonic fans – if you’ve been keeping up with the latest blue blur news, you’ll have seen and heard all about the cool new things revealed by our friends at SEGA America during Sonic’s 25th Anniversary Celebrations in San Diego.

Sonic Mania

We can proudly announce that Sonic Mania, a new 2D adventure by the minds behind the re-release of Sonic CD, will be available to play on the Summer of Sonic show floor. We will have a number of PCs hooked up ready for you to play throughout the day.

Announced during the Sonic 25th Anniversary Celebration, this is a new game that doubles as a love letter to the 16-bit generation. Classic levels such as Green Hill Zone are given a new twist, and are joined by all-new stages like Studiopolis. Sonic also has a brand new move called the Drop Dash, which allows him to charge through obstacles as soon as he hits the ground!

Check out the trailer above and we hope you’ll look forward to playing this at Summer of Sonic 2016. This will be a queued event, due to the imminent popularity of the game, so please bear this in mind.

Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice

Sonic Mania won’t be the only game on show within Summer of Sonic’s Game Zone. Our friends at SEGA and Nintendo are planning to provide a number of 3DS pods with demos of the latest in the Sonic Boom series, Fire & Ice. Arriving later this year, the game was showcased at E3 2016 to a number of positive reviews from the Sonic community, so this will be a rare chance to see the game for yourself before release.

Retro Sonic Games, Courtesy of Joypad

This being Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary, we felt it was only natural to celebrate the journey that the blue blur has taken over the years. This is why Summer of Sonic has teamed up with Joypad to give fans a chance to replay a selection of titles from Sonic’s history! A lot of these stations will include multiplayer titles so you can enjoy playing Sonic with your fellow show-goers.

We hope you’ll enjoy what we have to offer at Summer of Sonic 2016; we’re hoping to have our best show ever this year, and you can still purchase tickets for the show on our hub site here:
http://hub.summerofsonic.com/purchase/

More updates to come! See ya soon!
Svend & Adam

STRETCH GOAL #2 MET! Guest Announcement #3: Mike Pollock!

The Summer of Sonic Kickstarter has passed Stretch Goal act 2! Once again, we are stunned at how fast we are reaching these stretch goals, with each one allowing us to bring more and more to the Summer of Sonic 2016 experience.

On that note, we have ANOTHER guest announcement to make!

MIKE POLLOCK

If you hadn’t guessed from our not-so-subtle clues, our next Summer of Sonic guest is Mike Pollock, who makes his first special guest appearance at Summer of Sonic 2016! Mike is the longest running western voice actor for Sonic the Hedgehog, having provided the voice of Dr Eggman since the Sonic X TV series, airing back in 2003. Mike has an impressive resume of voice acting credits to his name, including work on the Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! franchises.

Come along for your chance to meet Mike at Summer of Sonic 2016!

25TH ANNIVERSARY COINS – LAST CHANCE!

We have a very small amount of 25th Anniversary coins that will be made available today at 6PM BST. This will be your very last chance to pledge for a reward tier with the coin reward, so if you really want one we suggest you grab one as soon as they are added tonight.

OVER 80% OF SOS 2016 INVITATIONS GONE!

If you intend on coming to Summer of Sonic 2016 – pledge now! More than 80% of our invitations have been pledged for, and we are on course to sell out!

Stay tuned for news on stretch goal 3!
Svend & Adam