Guest Announcement #4: Richard Elson & Nigel Dobbyn

Hey all!

First off, thank you all for checking your payment details in advance of the deadline – this ended up being a little earlier than we thought, but we have not had much by way of attrition in dropped pledges – many thanks! We are expecting to receive the funds from Kickstarter any day now, which means we can begin to pay for the hire of all of the tech we need, along with arranging flights and accommodation for our guests.

If your payment was dropped but you are still wanting to come to Summer of Sonic 2016, please get in touch with us by Friday, 20th of May.

Today we have two more guests to announce, with a Sonic the Comic theme!
Nigel Dobbyn

We welcome back Sonic the Comic artist Nigel Dobbyn, who once again joins the Summer of Sonic roster! Nigel is probably best known for illustrating some of the most memorable STC stories, including many of the Knuckles the Echidna story arcs. Nigel has an extensive portfolio of work outside of Sonic the Comic, including 2000AD and the Beano, and has been involved with Sonic the Comic Online – the fan-run continuation of the Sonic the Comic story.
Richard Elson

We are pleased to be able to announce the first appearance of Sonic the Comic artist Richard Elson at Summer of Sonic 2016! Richard’s art style is one of the most synonymous with Sonic the Comic, having illustrated from issue #7 all the way through to the comic’s conclusion. His career extends out into both the Marvel and 2000AD universes, as well as many other franchises such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Toxic Crusaders to name a few.
Event details to come!

We have received a lot of messages asking about the Summer of Sonic 2016 start and closing times. We have not yet confirmed the running order of the day, but we hope to bring you more details very soon!

Stay tuned!

Svend & Adam

Summer of Sonic 2016: The Next Steps

Hey all!

We have continued to be extremely busy even after the end of our fundraising campaign, which ended having raised 158% of our initial target! What’s more, Summer of Sonic is now completely sold out – amazing! We are still having to pinch ourselves at the success of the campaign, and would like to again thank everyone who has contributed to the cause.

What happens next?

We are now only 3 months from Summer of Sonic 2016. Over the coming weeks, we will be updating our Kickstarter, website and social media with a swathe of details, to keep you up-to-date on:

Guest announcements: We still have a lot of guest announcements to make in the near future, including familiar faces to Summer of Sonic as well as some first time guests too! As we’ve smashed our targets throughout this campaign, we have found that we will also be able to accommodate additional guests we initially thought we would not be able to finance; we are currently talking to a number of these guests about their availability to attend Summer of Sonic 2016
Event announcements: We will confirm the details of the day shortly, including opening and closing times, as well as more about the venue. We will also be announcing all of the on stage and off stage events that will be talking place at Summer of Sonic, including performances, competitions and much, much more!
Vendor and merchandise announcements: We have updates for all those who have pledged for the T-shirt and coin rewards with some finalised images of what these will look like in the flesh. Additionally, we will also keep you all up to date vendors who will be selling Sonic the Hedgehog merchandise on the day

What you need to do next!

Now that the campaign is finished, there are two last things we need from all of you:

Make sure your pledge payment has gone through: Many of you will have already been charged for your pledges, but please do check that your payment has gone through fine – the last day this will be collected is Monday 16th of May, 2016, so if you have not been charged by Friday 13th, please get in touch and we can follow this up to make sure your payment is taken and your rewards are secured
Complete the survey when you receive it: We aim to send out a survey in June, in which we will request details such as your email delivery address for your Summer of Sonic 2016 invitations, request the names you wish to place on your invites, and to request other details such as your preferred T-shirt sizes – we will update when we have sent these out!

In the meantime, if you have any questions or queries, please consult our Q&A section on the Kickstarter page – if you can’t find the answer there, please feel free to get in touch via Kickstarter messages.

More updates coming soon!

Adam & Svend

The Final Countdown!

Hi everyone!

We’re nearly at the end of this rollercoaster Kickstarter journey! It’s hard to believe how far we have all come in the space of a few weeks – not only has the Sonic the Hedgehog community come together to help us hit our target, but together we have managed to absolutely smash it!

Your support has been phenomenal, and the entire Summer of Sonic team is truly humbled and honoured that you have helped us accomplish our task. With only a few hours left to go on the Kickstarter campaign, it’s a good time to do one final pass and pledge if you are still interested in supporting the Summer of Sonic 2016.

We would also strongly recommend you check the Campaign details again, as well as the FAQ – as we mentioned before, 100% of the money pledged here will be spent making Summer of Sonic 2016 the best show we can possibly make it. This is why tickets to this event are not being sold, but are instead rewards for certain pledge amounts. We will not be selling tickets to the Summer of Sonic, so your only chance to get an invitation is via this Kickstarter.

Even though we’re nearing the end of this crowdfunding campaign, the excitement is only just beginning! We have already announced a number of guests, but there’s still plenty of things we haven’t shared yet, and will do over the coming weeks. You’ll love what we have planned, trust us.

After the Kickstarter ends, you can continue to follow our journey at the official Summer of Sonic website – http://www.summerofsonic.com. We will also keep you up to date here as well, as best we can.

It’s been a pleasure doing this with you – let’s see how far we can push this campaign in these last couple of hours!

Thanks
Adam & Svend

STRETCH GOAL #3 – One more goal!

Hey all!

We are rapidly racing towards the end of the funding period of the Kickstarter campaign, and we are delighted to have reached the £30k mark; this means our project is more than 150% funded! WAY past cool!

We have been VERY busy since our last update, and we are pleased to say we have a whole host of Special Guests lined up for announcement for Summer of Sonic 2016 – most of which will be first time guests at the event!

We do however have even more grand ideas in the pipeline!

Our last stretch goal is £32k.

We are already very close to this final target! If we can reach this final amount, we have a special mystery announcement that we have lined up for the end of the campaign – lets make one last push to our final goal!

Last Few Invitations!

We are now down to our last few invitations for Summer of Sonic 2016, as you might have noticed from our shifting of reward numbers around! If you are still thinking about Summer of Sonic we suggest you pledge very soon, as they may not last to the end of the campaign! If you need a specific amount of invitations, but there is no availability for the number you want, please drop us a message – we can easily move invitations from one tier to another in order to allow as many fans to come to the event as possible. This excludes tiers that include VIP packages and 25th anniversary coins unfortunately, which are now all gone.

Thank you all once again for your incredible support of Summer of Sonic – we are getting very excited about what we have lined up for the day, and we hope you all are too!

Adam & Svend

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

STRETCH GOAL #1 MET! Guest Announcement #2: Johnny Gioeli

GOOD… GREAT… AWESOME! OUTSTANDING! AMAZING!

We cannot believe that hours after announcing our first stretch goal…it was totally smashed! If you blinked, you missed the last 10 VIP invitations zoom off to 10 very lucky and VERY generous backers…we hope you guys are especially looking forward to your Summer of Sonic experience! The 25th anniversary coins up for grabs have already speed off at Sonic speed as well!!!

Thank you to all the new backers, and to those who upgraded their tiers to snag our new rewards – it all makes a huge difference, and it means we can now make our second guest announcement…

JOHNNY GIOELI

The voice of Crush 40, Johnny Gioeli, returns once more to Summer of Sonic! Gioeli made his Sonic debut back in 1998, thundering into Hedgehog history with his soaring vocals on the theme of Sonic Adventure, Open Your Heart. Since then, Gioeli and Senoue have made their mark in the Sonic universe as super group Crush 40, creating and performing many vocal tracks on the biggest games in the series.

Get ready to rock out once more with Crush 40 at Summer of Sonic 2016!

With stretch goal #1 reached, why stop there?

OUR SECOND STRETCH GOAL TARGET IS £27,500!

If we can beat our next target, we will be able to announce another EGG-citing guest – we hope you will all make your VOICE heard and help us to our goal!

See you at the goal post!

Stretch Goal #1!

We are so pleased to have beaten our funding target already, but we still have lots of aspirations for Summer of Sonic…and that’s where you come in!

OUR FIRST STRETCH GOAL TARGET IS £25,000!

If we can manage to CRUSH this next target, we will be SINGING from the rooftops! We have already announced two guests, and we have other big names to announce soon as well…but if we can reach this goal, we will be able to announce ANOTHER very special guest appearance at Summer of Sonic 2016!

NEW TIERS & 25TH ANNIVERSARY COIN!

We are overjoyed to be able to offer a very special item to a lucky few backers! SEGA of America have very generously offered us a number of 25th anniversary collectors coins to help us with our fundraising! These coins will be very limited, so you will need to be quick off the mark in order to snag one! Images of the coin will be available soon!

We will be adding these tiers at approximately 9:30pm this evening (about 1 hour from this post!) so stick around if you are desperate to own one!

VIP INVITATIONS – ONE LAST CHANCE!

Our last VIP Invitations will be made available at 9:30pm tonight! These last few invitations will also include the collectors coin. Those who have already backed at the SONIC GENERATIONS tier – we will have an update specifically for you soon!

Phew! That’s all for now! Keep pledging, keep sharing the Kickstarter page, and lets blast our way to the next target at Sonic speed!

Guest Announcement #1: Takashi Iizuka & Jun Senoue

We are pleased to be able to make our first guest announcements for Summer of Sonic 2016, and would like to welcome back two Sonic Team veterans to the event!

TAKASHI IIZUKA

Joining Sonic Team all the way back in 1993, Iizuka-san was the Senior Game Designer for Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Lead Game Designer for Sonic Adventure 2 to name but a few of the game credits to his name. Iizuka-san is the current Head of Sonic Team, and has been the Producer for all main Sonic titles since 2010. We look forward to once again hosting Iizuka-san at Summer of Sonic!

JUN SENOUE

Picking up the reins as Sound Director for Sonic Adventure, Senoue-san helped redefine the sound of Sonic the Hedgehog titles for the 21st century. He has now become synonymous with the series as both composer and performer, as well as playing lead guitar in the fan favourite rock band Crush 40. We look forward to Senoue-san performing once more at Summer of Sonic!

STAY TUNED!

Remember to check back tomorrow for more exciting updates!

Svend & Adam

SUMMER OF SONIC 2016 FUNDED!

Hey all – Adam and Svend here!

Wow! We are absolutely stoked that we have smashed our funding target for Summer of Sonic 2016! We would like to express our gratitude, on behalf of ourselves and the entire Summer of Sonic team, to all those who have pledged so generously and helped get us to our funding goal so quickly.

We are honoured that so many of you have faith in Summer of Sonic 2016 even before we have made any announcements regarding guests or events. We have received a boatload of kind messages conveying well wishes and joy that we are bringing the event back in the 25th anniversary year, and it has reminded us that Summer of Sonic means a lot to so many.Thank you all so much!

So…what next? Although we are coming up to half way through our campaign, we are far from finished with fundraising! Over 650 invites have been pledged for so far, and more are being pledged for every day! If you are still wishing to visit Summer of Sonic 2016, we suggest pledging sooner rather than later; considering the imminent announcements, they won’t last long! Remember, Kickstarter will not take payment until after the Kickstarter concludes, so don’t wait for payday in order to pledge!

Pledging for extra T-Shirts: Many of you have asked if you can pledge for extra T-Shirts to your tier…and you can! Simply add £15 to your pledge – every extra £15 pledged above the minimum amount required for that tier will get you one extra T-Shirt!

Guest Announcements! Keep your eyes firmly fixed on our social media accounts and our website – we will be announcing our very first guests!

Stretch goal #1! We are overjoyed we have already reached our initial funding target, but aspirations won’t stop there! We will announce our first stretch goal on Monday 18th of April!

New Reward Tiers! Any die-hard Sonic the Hedgehog merchandise collectors will want to be sat on our Kickstarter page on Monday 18th of April, as we launch a some VERY exclusive tiers which will include a VERY limited edition piece of Official Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary merchandise! They will go fast, so if you want to get your hands on one, we suggest you keep your eyes firmly glued to the Kickstarter that day!

VIP Tier – one more chance! We will be releasing the last 10 VIP tier invitations on Monday 18th of April, after which we will be offering no more! Don’t miss your chance for an incredible Summer of Sonic experience!

Thank you all again for all of your support, and keep sharing our Kickstarter to push us towards our first stretch goal!

Adam & Svend

Over Half Of SOS 2016 Invites GONE! New Tiers Introduced!

Hey all! Adam and Svend here again from the Summer of Sonic team!

We are so pleased to see that even after the initial rush, our project still has fantastic momentum, and at day 5 we have already exceeded the 80% funding mark! This is absolutely fantastic news, and means we should hopefully reach our target in a matter of days. A huge thank you to everyone who has pledged so far; it is great to see that so many support Summer of Sonic even before we start our ever-growing list of exciting announcements for special guests, activities and much, much more!

We have now had pledges for over half of the number of invites we can offer for Summer of Sonic 2016. Again as we have detailed in our project description, Summer of Sonic 2016 is purely invite only, and the only way to receive an invite is to help us make the event happen through pledging. We have received a number of messages asking if it is possible to receive an invite to Summer of Sonic 2016 after the Kickstarter campaign concludes – unfortunately this will not be possible, as we have no way to guarantee we will have any space left by the time the Kickstarter ends. If you are considering coming to Summer of Sonic 2016, our suggestion is to pledge now and avoid disappointment!

The following are reward tier updates that have been made in response to requests we have received:

SONIC’S SCHOOL HOUSE: This is a new tier, that we hope will accommodate those who want to visit with young families. This tier reward includes TWO Summer of Sonic invitations, PLUS TWO invitations for children that are aged 5 or under
SONIC TRIPLE TROUBLE: This tier was more popular than we initially anticipated, so we have released more
SONIC 3D BLAST: In addition to requests for more 3 x invite combinations, we have also added this new tier, which includes THREE Summer of Sonic invitations and THREE event T-shirts

Again, please make sure you keep coming back to this Kickstarter Page, even if you’ve already pledged, because we have some ideas for new reward tiers that will definitely get some of you very excited! Please keep sharing our Kickstarter campaign page – the more we can raise, the bigger and better Summer of Sonic 2016 will be.

Let’s race towards our target at Sonic speed!
Adam & Svend