The Summer of Sonic is an annual convention focusing on all
aspects relating to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise officially
recognised by SEGA. The event was created in 2006 by computer game
journalist and Sonic fan site owner Svend Joscelyne (aka
“Dreadknux”), as the collaborative creation during July
and August of a celebratory website in which 
submission of articles and media
was open to anyone principally to celebrate the 15th
anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog.
After the success of the online event an actual physical convention seemed the next logical step and “Summer of Sonic†came to life as a small event planned by The Sonic Stadium with fellow UK website Sonic Wrecks and in tandem with SEGA Europe’s Community Team both the latter two being run by Kevin Eva (aka “ArchangelUK” or “AAUK”). Whilst a 2007 event was not possible, the first Summer Of Sonic convention actually came into being the following year in 2008 and has gone on from strength to strength become an annual event drawing SEGA and Sonic fans from all-over the world.
See who has appeared at Summer Of Sonic over the years. >>
2010Â –
Shepherd’s Bush, London
The most recent Summer of Sonic was the biggest and best to date, bringing in nine hundred people plus to enjoy a fantastic celebration of Sonic’s adventures to date that at one point before the doors opened threatened to bring the entire Shepherd’s Bush area to a standstill by the sheer mass of humanity. As well as the returning Nigel Dobbyn from the UK based Fleetway comic series we had our first special guests from overseas this year, with Sonic Team itself representing in the form of composer extraordinaire Jun Senoue.
Senoue, who performed a 
special set of classic tunes on his
famous Sonic Adventure guitar and a keyboard for everyone also
teamed up with American friend and musical partner Johnny Gioeli to
fulfill many a fan’s dream and headline the event as rock
band Crush 40 giving a one-hour live performance that with Sonic
himself playing air guitar in the background brought the house
down. Still at this time their only western performance ever.
SEGA of course were in attendance and E3 demos of the unreleased Sonic 4: Episode 1 and Sonic Colours on Wii and DS were on display – there was also a Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing tournament also took place. Whilst attendees were truly spoilt as Archie sent over free comics for eveybody and First 4 Figures, in to show off their brand new Super Sonic statue to people for the first time.also gave the first 500 people a free 2″ Metal Sonic figure.
Nintendo themselves even braved the pro-SEGA throng to get people’s views on Sonic Colours. Subsequent footage forming the base of a special update on Europe’s Nintendo Channel on the Wii – see below: