Miku Expo
Concert tours featuring Hatsune Miku
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hatsune Miku Expo (stylized in all caps) is a series of world tours organized by Crypton Future Media starring the virtual singing software character Hatsune Miku. The performances include notable user-created Vocaloid songs and digital choreography of Miku dancing, projected onto glass screens. The pre-recorded Miku vocals are backed by a live instrumental band. The tour started on May 28, 2014 in Jakarta, Indonesia, with new shows added every year, with the exception of 2021, 2022 and 2023 where Hatsune Miku-related events were held virtually and livestreamed on platforms such as Twitch, YouTube and Niconico. In-person Miku Expo shows were resumed on April 4, 2024 in Vancouver, Canada. As of 2024, the tour consisted of 82 shows spanning the continents of Asia, North America, Europe and Oceania. The largest attendance for a Miku Expo performance was over 8,000 at Wembley Arena in London for the Europe 2024 tour.
| World tour by Hatsune Miku | |
Cosplay of Hatsune Miku in Taipei promoting Miku Expo 2019 | |
| Start date | May 28, 2014 |
|---|---|
| No. of shows | 91 (as of 2025) |
| Attendance | over 8,000 (record for a single performance) |
| Website | mikuexpo |
The latest show, and the last show of Miku Expo 2025, was set on November 30, 2025 in Seoul, South Korea. The latest scheduled tour is Miku Expo 2026, scheduled from April 12 to May 19 in North America and from November 12 to 25 in Europe.
Performance
Miku Expo concerts feature Hatsune Miku performing original songs created by fans.[1][2] Miku's pre-recorded synthesized vocals are backed by a four-piece rock band consisting of a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer and a keyboardist.[3][4][5] Alongside Miku, the rest of the Vocaloid characters created by Crypton Future Media – Kagamine Rin & Len, Megurine Luka, Meiko and Kaito – perform on stage.[1][6] Computer-animated images of the characters dancing are projected onto transparent glass screens to produce a hologram-like illusion.[4][7] In the 2024 tours, an LED screen was used instead.[8]
Production
The graphics for the shows are created by Sega and Marza Animation Planet.[1] For the 2024 tours, Marza was responsibe for partial production of character modelling, character set-up and animation.[9] The dancing is originally performed by humans and transferred to 3D models using motion and light reflection capture.[1][10]
Song contest
The first Hatsune Miku Expo Song Contest was held from August 26 to October 19, 2015, leading up to the Miku Expo 2016 tour.[11] The contest for original songs featuring Hatsune Miku vocals was open internationally and gathered submissions though SoundCloud.[12] A trial version of Hatsune Miku V3 English was released alongside the contest. The winning song, selected by Crypton staff, was to be performed live at Miku Expo concerts.[13][11] The grand prize winner, "Ten Thousand Stars", an electronic dance music track produced by CircusP, was announced on November 26.[11] Circus tuned the Miku English vocals to a middle ground between robotic and human-sounding, sacrificing machine perfection for a sense of humanity.[14] A pre-recorded version of the song, backed by a live band, was perfomed on all concerts in the 2016 tour.[14]
A similar contest was held for Miku Expo 2018 USA & Mexico, from December 27, 2017 to January 31, 2018. This time allowing vocals by all six Vocaloid characters created by Crypton.[15] The winning entry was "Can't Make A Song!!" by Beat_shobon, featuring Miku singing in English.[16] The song was performed during the 2018 USA & Mexico tour (but not during the Europe tour later that year).[17]
The 5th anniversary of Miku Expo saw the song contest returning to its roots, allowing only Hatsune Miku vocals. The contest was held from September 27 to October 31, 2019, having the winning entry be performed live at Miku Expo 2020 Europe.[18] The winning song was "MikuFiesta", a salsa produced by AlexTrip Sands, featuring vocals in Spanish.[19][20]
History
2010s
The first Miku Expo was held in 2014 in Jakarta, Indonesia and in the United States, specifically in Los Angeles and New York City. The theme song for the tour was "Sharing The World", produced by Bighead.[21]
Miku Expo 2015 was held on June 26 and 27 in Shanghai, China.[22]
Miku Expo 2016 was held in Japan from March 23 to April 10, in North America from April 23 to June 5, in Taiwan from June 25 and 26, and in China on December 3 and 4 in Shanghai, and on December 10 and 11 in Beijing.[23][24][25] Anamanaguchi was the opening act for the North American tour.[7]
Miku Expo 2017 was held on December 16 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[26][27]
Miku Expo 2018 was held from June 29 until July 19 in the United States and Mexico, and on December 1 until 8 in Paris, France; Cologne, Germany; and London, England.[28][29][30][31]
Miku Expo 2019 was held on May 11 in Taiwan and on July 27 in Hong Kong.[32]
2020s
Miku Expo 2020 took place in Europe on January 11 to 28, in London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Barcelona. A United States and Canada tour was originally scheduled to take place in April and May,[33] but it was postponed to the following year after initially rescheduling to September and October,[34] and later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[35]
In October 2020, a virtual livestream performance online was announced[36] and funded by a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that ran for 2 months starting on November 12, 2020, and raised over JP¥60,000,000 (approximately US$550,000), more than double its intended target of JP¥25,000,000 (approximately US$230,000)[37][38] and took place on June 6, 2021.[39]
Miku Expo Rewind was held on June 5, 2022. Unlike previous years, this event consisted of a specially-curated compilation of performances of songs that were recorded at past Miku Expo concerts, many of which had not been released beforehand. In addition, a variety of online sub-events, exhibitions, and workshops were also held in conjunction with the event. A second online event, "Miku Expo Rewind+" was also held on November 6 of the same year.
Miku Expo VR took place on November 12, 2023.
In September 2023, it was announced that Miku Expo 2024 will celebrate their 10th anniversary with a tour across North America, with tour dates scheduled to take place from April to May.[40] In March of the following year, it was also announced that there would also be a tour in Europe, scheduled in October and November.[41] In July, a tour in New Zealand and Australia was announced, scheduled from November 15 to November 26, marking Miku's first appearance in these countries.[42]
The 2024 tour was the first to use LED screens to display the virtual performers, as opposed to the commonly used Rear projection techniques (wrongly marketed as "hologram") used at previous Miku Expo tours.[8] The fans at the first showing (April 4, Vancouver) did not expect this change and voiced their frustration and disappointment on social media.[43][44] Kotaku reported the change as a "drop in quality".[45] On April 12, Crypton Future Media confirmed that the LED screen will be used throughout the North America and Europe tours, noting that the technology had been used for other Hatsune Miku events.[a][47] During the Europe tour, the London performance at Wembley Arena broke record as the most-attended Miku Expo concert with over 8,000 attendees.[48]
In July 2025, it was announced that Miku Expo 2025 would tour Asia, scheduled from November 5 to November 29. This marks the first ever Asia tour.[49] On August 19, an additional city and show were announced. Taipei received a show and Seoul received another show on the next day.[50]
Miku Expo 2026 was announced in October 2025, with a tour for North America scheduled from April 13 to May 19, 2026.[51] On October 28, select cities received one additional show. Chicago received a show on April 12, San Jose received a show on April 23, and Boston received a show on May 11.[52] On November 4, Los Angeles received an additional show on April 26.[53]
Miku Expo 2026 Europe was announced on February 20, 2026, scheduled to tour six European countries from November 12 to 25.[54]
Tour dates
Cancelled shows
| Original date
(2020) |
First rescheduling
(2020) |
Second rescheduling
(2021) |
City | Country | Venue | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020–2021 | ||||||
| April 26 | September 4 | April through May | Orlando | United States | Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts | COVID-19 pandemic |
| April 29 | September 8 | National Harbor[iv] | MGM National Harbor | |||
| May 2 | September 11 | Asbury Park | Asbury Park Convention Hall | |||
| May 5 | September 17 | Boston | House of Blues | |||
| May 15 | September 20 | Laval[v] | Canada | Place Bell | ||
| May 13 | September 23 | Toronto | Coca-Cola Coliseum | |||
| May 9 | September 25 | Chicago | United States | Aragon Ballroom | ||
| April 4 | September 30 | Vancouver | Canada | Thunderbird Sports Centre | ||
| April 14 | October 4 | San Jose | United States | San Jose Civic | ||
| April 8 | October 18 | Los Angeles | Shrine Auditorium | |||
| April 21 | October 21 | Dallas | The Bomb Factory | |||
| April 24 | October 24 | College Park[iii] | Gateway Center Arena | |||
Notes
- Cities
- Others
- MikuPa Tokyo '11 had a screen instead of the expected hologram, which has caused a backlash among Japanese fans[46] causing 5pb to publicly make an apology on Twitter.[citation needed]