Were you there? Let us know about this, and your favourite SoS Moments here in the comments, or via Twitter!

We are happy – also proud, flabbergasted and excited – to reveal that Wave 1 of Summer of Sonic 2012 tickets have sold out in a space of just three minutes! Ticket registrations were opened at 12:30 BST, and closed at around 12:33. We were so surprised we had to spend some time double (and triple) checking the entries to see if they were all legitimate.

They were. Summer of Sonic 2012 is already becoming the hottest convention we’ve ever held (in terms of popularity, of course – we think 2011 hold the record for temperature), and we’re so incredibly psyched that all of you really want to come and spend the day with your fellow Sonic fan.

We’re still reeling, but we wanted to answer some popular questions we’ve received and make things clear about where we go from here. Please give it a read – if you have any further questions, ask in the comments box below and we’ll try to either answer it for you.

Sold out!? In only three minutes!?

We’re just as stunned at the amazing demand for tickets as you are, believe us! Nobody could have predicted how popular this year’s event was going to be. In 2011 – a year where we hosted Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka for Sonic’s 20th Anniversary – a total of around 700 reservations had ‘sold out’ in just under ten hours.

Compare that with 400 tickets this year, in three minutes. Wow!

We are aware that, due to the phenomenally unprecedented demand, many fans have missed out this time around. We can only apologise to those that were not quick enough to register in time – but it just goes to show how much of an impact this small community event has had in just five years! Thank you all for your support!

Why were the tickets delayed by 30 minutes?

Unfortunately, we had hit a technical issue right at the last minute, and had to inform eager fans that the tickets would be released 30 minutes later than expected. However, we did inform everyone via our official Twitter account and on the official Facebook Page. Tickets were released dead-on 12:30 British Summer Time, as promised.

How do I know my ticket application was successful?

Your ticket application page would have refreshed, and a green box would have appeared with a message saying your application had been processed. You will also have received an automated email almost immediately after hitting ‘Submit’. If you are sure you had a successful application but did not receive an email, please check your Spam folder.

I need to change my details!

Your confirmation email came with a URL that you can click to return to your ticket application, should you wish to make any changes.

My email says my application was successful, but I’ve not had my ticket sent yet.

Tickets will be sent via email in a matter of weeks, before the Summer of Sonic convention takes place. We won’t have forgotten about you in that time, don’t worry. You can always go back to your ticket application page – via the URL given to you in your confirmation email – to see the status of your application, so you know when tickets have been sent out to you.

What will happen to duplicate ticket applications?

We will be combing through each application for duplicates and inconsistencies. Duplicate entries will be freed and the number of tickets ordered will be added to the second wave of tickets. We’re not letting any spares go to waste!

Why was there a link to the Register Tickets page at 11:59, which then disappeared?

We were testing how the page would look before we released the tickets to the public. This link only appeared for a split second, and anyone who clicked on that link would not have had an unfair advantage to obtain tickets. Anyone who tried to access the registration page before 12:30 would have been greeted with a message saying “We’re Not Open Yet!”

How many waves of tickets will there be?

Two.

When will Wave 2 of Summer of Sonic tickets be released?

We will announce details of Wave 2 next week.

Update: 14 May 2012

I registered for more tickets than I need/I can’t come to Summer of Sonic anymore! What do I do?

If you have tickets that you no longer need, please make sure you contact us at support@summerofsonic.com and let us know! We want to make sure as many people are able to come as possible – so help your fellow Sonic fan and email us so we can make your tickets available to someone else.

Due to unexpected and overwhelming demand, we cannot respond to any requests for tickets to Summer of Sonic 2012 – through our support email address or any other means of contact. The only way to obtain tickets is through our ticket registration process. Thank you for your understanding.

I/A friend put multiple names on the ticket registration form. Do we get multiple tickets?

There is an option to include additional people on the ticket registration form. This will tell us that you are coming to Summer of Sonic as part of a Group. When tickets are issued, the name of the Ticket Registrant (the person who filled in the form) and the names of the additional people entered will have their names printed on one Group Ticket.

Because Groups will only get one ticket instead of multiple individual ones, you must ensure that all members of the Group are present with the Ticket Registrant at the door, otherwise the additional Group members may not be allowed in! Please plan your day accordingly.

Will those who successfully registered tickets in Wave 1 be able to enter Summer of Sonic 2012 any earlier than Wave 2 registrants?

No. There will be only one line for entry.

What happens if I don’t get a ticket in Wave 2?

Due to space concerns, and the overwhelming demand for this year’s event, Summer of Sonic 2012 will be a ticket-only event. A valid ticket must be presented at the door to be allowed entry into the convention. Groups must all be in attendance and must accompany the Ticket Registrant (the person who actually filled the details in on the registration form) on the door to be allowed entry, as only one ticket will be provided per Group.

In the past, we have allowed entry to non-ticket holders whenever there was space available. We can no longer do this due to the increasing popularity of the convention, and the growing complexities of organising the event as a result.

I’ve applied for my ticket – so when does Summer of Sonic 2012 open and close?

The exact details have not been locked down yet, so we cannot be specific, but you can assume that we will not open earlier than 10am and we will not close later than 8pm. If you need to make travel arrangements for the day, please use these times as a guide for arrivals and departures.

You say email support@summerofsonic.com… but I got my notification from support@sonicstadium.org!

That is a strange one! We actually forgot about setting up an email address until the last minute, so in the end we went with the sonicstadium.org address so we could be sure any replies would reach us. Any emails from now on will be sent from summerofsonic.com. If you want to contact us, either address will work, but sonicstadium.org may take longer to get a reply as your message will go into a different inbox.

Get ready for Summer of Sonic tickets! As previously mentioned in our Venue and Location Announcement post, the first wave of tickets will be made available on this website in two days’ time – Sunday 13th May at 12:00 BST (03:00 US Pacific, 06:00 US Eastern, 20:00 Japan Standard Time).

There will be 400 tickets available. Tickets will be free. All you need to do is visit this website – a link to the Registration subsite will be easily visible on all pages. All tickets will be subject to our official Terms & Conditions of Entry – you will need to read and understand this before registering your tickets. The Terms & Conditions of Entry will be provided on the Registration subsite.

Please ensure that you will be able to travel to and attend the Summer of Sonic convention before considering registering for tickets.

Sonic fans, start your engines! We are proud to announce that the Summer of Sonic convention will be the first place to get some hands-on time with the upcoming Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

As part of an amazing tour promoting the game, Sumo Digital’s Executive Producer Steve Lycett (also known as S0L on many Sonic forums – including SEGA’s own) will also be at Summer of Sonic to meet with fans and introduce the next evolution in hedgehog-heavy car racing.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed pits famous SEGA characters – from Sonic the Hedgehog characters including Tails, Knuckles and Eggman, to familiar faces from Jet Set Radio, Skies of Arcadia and Crazy Taxi – against one another in an explosive racing experience that takes you across road, water and even the air! Vehicles transform from kart to boat to plane, in dynamic stages that cover a wealth of SEGA history.

It’s the long-awaited sequel to the hugely successful Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing – and you get to play it before anyone else on July 7th!

If you can’t make it to Summer of Sonic this year, but can travel to the US, fear not because our friends at SEGA of America across the pond will also be showcasing Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed at the Sonic Boom convention on Friday, July 13th 2012. Demo pods will be available so you can be the first in the country to play the game, and Steve Lycett will also be there to meet eager American fans!

If you couldn’t hold on much longer for news on this year’s guests, you’ll never let go of this announcement! Prepare to open your heart, because Sonic sound director Jun Senoue and rock singer Johnny Gioeli will be making an explosive return to the Summer of Sonic convention as Crush 40!

These guys need absolutely no introduction to Sonic the Hedgehog fans. The dynamic duo are responsible for some of the most memorable theme songs in video game history, from Sonic Adventure’s Open Your Heart to Sonic Adventure 2′s Live & Learn and Sonic Heroes’… erm, Sonic Heroes. The pair have also re-imagined a number of other Sonic themes in the past, and are now branching out with some incredible original material.

They’re truly the rock sound of a Sonic generation, and Jun and Johnny will be present to meet with fans and perform their latest and greatest on stage. In 2010, Crush 40 rocked the Summer of Sonic convention – their second ever live performance and the first outside of Japan – and this year they’re set to do it all over again.

We love Jun Senoue and Johnny Gioeli to bits, and we know you all do too – we’re so excited to have Crush 40 back at the Summer of Sonic, and can’t wait to have them meet you guys and perform for you. Roll on 7th July!

The time has finally come to announce the venue of this year’s Summer of Sonic convention. We’re sorry to have kept you – we wanted to make sure that everything was just right before we confirmed anything for you. I can now happily reveal that the Summer of Sonic 2012 will take place in the Hove Centre, at Hove Town Hall, Brighton.

That’s right, the Summer of Sonic is hitting the beautiful British seaside! Hove Centre is easily accessible from Brighton Train Station, which is just a simple hour‘s train journey from London Victoria or London Bridge stations within the UK capital city.

The Hove Centre

This year will be a landmark for the Summer of Sonic, as we host our fifth convention – and what better place to celebrate one of the biggest events of the Sonic summer than at the great British seaside? With London holding its own summer celebrations this year, the Hove Centre seemed a perfect fit for Summer of Sonic.

What really impressed us about the Hove Centre is the 870-person capacity, the interior design and the facilities it has:

• A sizeable community hall allows us to maintain the same friendly atmosphere that we have carried with past conventions.
• Projector, Stage and Lighting equipment means we can put on a heck of a show for you.
• A balcony area is included that can fit a maximum of 150 people, and features seating overlooking the show floor. This will be open to attendees.
• Both floors of the venue feature bars that will offer drinks (and maybe food..? You’ll have to wait and see) without leaving the hall.
• And yes, there will be air conditioning. And we didn’t have to sell any children to get it either!

What does all of this mean? It means that we will be able to stage an extra-special, more exclusive Summer of Sonic convention for our fifth anniversary! Over the next few weeks we will be publishing tonnes of information that will help you with your travel arrangements to Brighton from London, and beyond. Until then, however, make sure you book your train travel, hotel rooms and any other necessary amenities around the Brighton area.

We’ve answered some questions about the choice of location and further information below. Please ensure you read them. If you have a question that’s not answered here, feel free to ask in the comments area below.

Why Brighton?

The decision to host Summer of Sonic 2012 in Brighton was one made by the online Sonic community and volunteer staff. We previously mentioned why we could not host Summer of Sonic 2012 in London - so an alternative outside of the UK capital city had to be chosen.

There were many cities and towns outside of London that we considered – including Birmingham and the NEC centre that is based there. However, we decided Brighton was the best choice on the basis of three core tenets – international access, an appropriate venue and hotel availability. Plus it’s a proper summer holiday seaside town!

We know a lot of people travel from abroad to attend Summer of Sonic, so ease of travel was one of the biggest concerns. Brighton is, despite its location on the UK map, the easiest location to get to out of the choices we considered, with coach services that run from Gatwick and trains that speed through London. There are a huge amount of hotels on the Brighton seafront, too.

Oh yes, there’s a seafront. And it’s a pretty beautiful seaside at that! The perfect location to host an intimate Sonic party (Emerald Coast, anyone?).

In short – being in Brighton allows us to give you the most awesome day with fellow Sonic fans, at a price you can’t really argue with (free is a pretty cool entrance fee), for a location that will only require a slight tweak to your travel plans.

What if I’ve already booked hotels and travel to London?

Nothing changes. In fact, it’s probably better if you have already made arrangements for London – Brighton is incredibly easy to travel to via train. It takes an hour to get to Brighton from London Victoria station. Booking your tickets in advance via thetrainline.com can make the return journey for the day as cheap as £10.

If you’re from overseas and were planning to spend a vacation in London, we recommend that you keep any London hotel bookings you have and simply order a £10 return from Victoria to Brighton. This way, you can spend the day on Saturday 7th in beautiful Brighton without it impacting the rest of your vacation.

Can you help me book my travel to / hotels in Brighton?

We’re working on a comprehensive travel document that will detail everything you need to know about Brighton – including hotels, travel information to and from London and all major airports, how to get to the venue from Brighton station, and nearby shops/landmarks that you can visit if you plan to make a weekend out of it.

When will tickets be made available, and how many will there be?

The first wave of tickets will be made available on this website in a week’s time – Sunday 13th May at 12:00 BST (03:00 US Pacific, 06:00 US Eastern, 20:00 Japan Standard Time). There will be 400 tickets available. A second wave of tickets will be announced shortly after, with a number yet to be decided. Tickets will be free.

What else have you got to tell us?

Yes – believe it or not, we’re not yet done with the announcements for this week. Stay tuned – tomorrow we will officially reveal the first of many special guests that will be attending Summer of Sonic 2012! Can we give you a clue? … Nah! We like to watch you guess!

Cheers
Svend / Dreadknux

Wow! As of this writing, we’ve reached 500 Likes on our new Facebook Page, and hit over 230 followers on our dedicated Twitter account! Amazing! Keep it up! We’d like to take this milestone opportunity to let you know that the Summer of Sonic is going all-out with its collaborations and interactions with the fan base this year. Our convention is known for letting Sonic-lovers get close to their heroes and showing off the creativity of the fan base, and this year – our fifth convention – will be no different.

Summer of Sonic 2012 will be seeing a return of the popular Showcase, which allowed certain talented fans to get up on stage and display their talent to the crowd! The Artist Alley – a selection of tables showing off the fanart of some truly inspiring contributors – will return for you to see the wealth of creativity that the fan base has!

It can be argued that nothing is more creative than cosplay, and boy are we highlighting this! We’ve been blown away by the increasing quality and imagination of our cosplayers – from full-on Sally suits to homemade Piko Piko Hammers and Wes Weasley outfits – and we will be hosting a heck of a cosplay contest at Summer of Sonic 2012!

Our good friends Sonic the Comic: Online will be present to showcase its fan continuation of the classic 1990s Egmont Fleetway publication of the same name (minus the ‘Online’ part, of course!), and they won’t be the only ones showing off their flair at the event. Keep an eye out for some fan animations and shorts to be played for your entertainment too – we can’t reveal exactly what these are at the moment, but rest assured you can bet that the usual suspects are involved!

Finally, we can confirm, due to overwhelming popularity last year, that Club Sonic will return for a second round of audience interaction! We loved putting on a show for you guys in a unique way, and we want to do it all over again with a brand new playlist!

Further details on all of these great activities will be revealed as we near the Summer of Sonic convention date – but trust me when I say we’ve just brushed the tip of the iceberg, even with the fan interaction!

More announcements to come… sooner than you think!

We just wanted to let you guys know that there will be more ways to interact with The Summer of Sonic, starting this year! We have launched a brand spanking new Twitter account, along with a dedicated Facebook Page.

We’ll be relaying all our announcements – made on this website – via these social media outlets, so that you are always in the know about the latest guest or activity! We’ll also be using Twitter and Facebook to open a more friendly conversation with our attendees and fans, in a way that we can’t really do on the official website.

Follow our Twitter account: @summerofsonic
Like our Facebook Page: The Summer of Sonic

We already have a Facebook Group in place for the convention – but this will likely be phased out in favour of the Facebook Page. So if you are a member of the Group, please make sure you Like the Page too, so you do not miss any important official announcements!

Enjoy following us! And while I’m here, we’d like to apologise again for keeping you waiting on further details regarding location and venue – trust me when we say that it’ll all be worth it!

Traditionally, the location and venue announcements have always been the ‘big hump’ that we as organisers need to get over. That’s due to a number of legal and security matters that need to be agreed by all parties before we can safely host a huge Sonic party for you all.

The fact we had to change our location this year – away from the usual home of London in past years – has added to this hump. Know that once the venue and location is announced – which will be very, very soon – a whole heap of other announcements will be made very quickly indeed. You won’t be waiting around.

Cheers
Svend / Dreadknux

Hey everyone! We’re not too far away from telling you all sorts of hot details about this year’s Summer of Sonic convention! We’re sorry that you’ve had to wait a while for any concrete news, but we have to absolutely make sure that the things we want – people, venue, games, activities – are all concrete and definitely happening before we jump the gun on any announcements! I hope you understand!

To that end, I want to update you all a little bit about location and travel, ahead of our official venue reveal in a couple of week’s time! The Summer of Sonic has traditionally been situated in London. That’s where we had SoS in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 after all. It works, because it happens to be the travel capital of the UK, and incredibly easy to get to. Particularly for those who intend to come from abroad.

For 2012, we’re expecting a huge turnout – we’re looking at venues that can hold at least 2000 people – and as a result it is becoming harder to secure a definitive location in central London. To add to the pressure that we’re facing this year, the Olympics are taking place in London, which means that travel could well be impacted if we hosted Summer of Sonic in as central a place as we have done in the past.

This is why we have been looking at venues that are located in the Greater London area instead. We have a candidate that we would love to tell you about right now, but sadly we need to lock a few things down on our side before we can talk further about it. But, as a heads up, you shouldn’t be surprised if the venue we announce isn’t within the centre of London.

What does this mean if you’ve already booked travel plans (i.e. flights) or hotels within London? Essentially, nothing. The Summer of Sonic team and SEGA have gone all-out to ensure that any venue we pick is within jumping distance of central London, with easy and accessible travel links from both the centre of the capital and Heathrow and Gatwick airports. If you’re planning to travel to London to spend a vacation, Summer of Sonic will just be a brief train journey away from the capital at best.

I also want to offer some more details that we can confirm ahead of our venue announcement, too. This information is regarding the ticketing for this year’s event.

• The Summer of Sonic will be completely ticketed this year. In the past, we’ve allowed a queue to form for those without early-access tickets, so that as many people can enjoy the day as possible. As SoS gets bigger, it’s now unfeasible to do this. So you will need a ticket for entry. If you don’t get a ticket, you won’t be allowed in. Sorry.
• Tickets will be offered in waves. We have yet to decide how to split the numbers, or how many waves there will be. Once we have announced the venue, we will be revealing dates where you can grab a ticket for entry.
• Contrary to what you might have heard, tickets for entry to Summer of Sonic 2012 will be free. All you need to worry about is getting your lovely selves down to the venue. Which we will announce very soon (I know – I’m sorry!).

Rest assured, once the venue is announced – and that will be no longer than a couple of weeks from this date – updates and further details will be coming thick and fast. To whet your appetite, I can tease you in saying that there is one guest that we will be able to reveal almost immediately after the venue. Heck, we’d do it now, but we want to do things logically here. Know where to go first, then get excited about what’s in it.

I want to close today’s update by asking you all – where about are you guys based? We’d love to get some kind of idea as to where in the world you guys intend to be traveling from. A lot of fans come from the UK, naturally, but we get a lot of American, Canadian, Australian and European visitors too! Do you plan to come to Summer of Sonic 2012, and if so which country are you from?

Cheers
Svend Joscelyne / Dreadknux

It’s back! It’s my pleasure to welcome you to the official website for the Summer of Sonic 2012 convention! This will be the place you need to come to for all your announcements, discussion and (of course) tickets to this year’s event!

For those of you who are new to this event, a very special welcome! The Summer of Sonic is an annual fan-organised convention that celebrates everything about our favourite video game character, Sonic the Hedgehog.

What began as a grassroots fan-funded affair in 2008, our debut year, has now become an internationally-recognised event supported by SEGA Europe. This year will mark SoS’ fifth year, and as such we’re preparing to bring the thunder.

This year’s Summer of Sonic event will take place on Saturday July 7, in the area of the UK’s capital city – London. We’ll be bringing you updates on a regular basis, and will reveal more concrete details very soon!

Until then, feel free to register your interest in this year’s event by posting in the comments box below! Any ideas you might have will surely be taken on board too, so let us know what you would like to see! On behalf of the entire Summer of Sonic team, I’d like to thank you for your support over the last five years – and your continued support too! Let’s party!

Cheers
Svend Joscelyne / Dreadknux