Sónar Barcelona celebrates its 20th anniversary

Sónar Barcelona celebrates its 20th anniversary with a line-up that reaffirms and celebrates its personality, and with a change of venue for Sónar by Day, which moves to Fira Montjuïc, in Plaça d’Espanya. Jamie Lidell, Major Lazer, Justice djs, Diplo, Skrillex, Soulwax, AlunaGeorge, Derrick May, Raime, Laurent Garnier, Seth Troxler, TNGHT, Modeselektor and Francesco Tristano, among many others, join a line-up headed by Pet Shop Boys and the Kraftwerk 3D show. Sonar+D, the evolution of the festival’s new media and professional areas which from this year on will have a special focus on mobility, is born. The new Sónar brand, in close collaboration with the Mobile World Capital Barcelona, presents a series of activities with the same central theme: making the relationship between creativity, technology, innovation and business more visible and accessible. The line-up for this 20th anniversary takes the form of a celebration, in a combination of a selection of great classics, new ideas for dance music and the festival’s usual experimental spirit. Around 130 artists will be included in a line-up for which will be finalized in the coming weeks. Sónar reinvents the uses of an emblematic space, shortens the distance between Sónar by Day and Sónar by Night and maintains its centrality and its status as an urban festival with its new location for Sónar by Day in Fira Montjuïc. The weekend of the 15 and 16 of February sees the 1st Sónar Reykjavik, which is the first stop on an international route that will continue in SonarSound Tokyo (6 & 7 April) and Sónar São Paulo (24 & 25 May), culminating in the showpiece event in Sónar Barcelona (13.14 & 15 June). In the festival’s 20-year history, Sónar has hosted more than 1.2 million visitors and has presented more than 7,000 artists from the world of music and disciplines such as audiovisuals, digital creation and multimedia art.

The new venue for Sónar by Day: a commitment to the future

The festival is moving its daytime headquarters to the pavilions at Fira Montjuïc in Plaça d’Espanya, an emblematic location in the city centre. This change reaffirms the festival’s pioneer personality and redesigns the spaces of Sónar by Day. The new location will enable to rejuvenate the presentation of its daytime venue, with very large spaces that facilitate optimal circulation both of the attendees and the professionals. Sónar by Day keeps its 4 stages (SonarVillage by Estrella Damm, SonarHall, SonarDôme and SonarComplex), all of which have increased capacities in their new locations. The new Sónar by Day is significantly nearer Sónar by Night, which is still at its usual venue in the Fira Gran Via area in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, and consolidates its four-stage format, (SonarClub, SonarLab, SonarPub and SonarCar, located next to the bumper cars). The distance between both venues with the Sonar buses is only 10 minutes.

A celebratory line-up

Sónar is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a big birthday party. On one side, the essential benchmarks like Kraftwerk (with their 3D show), Pet Shop Boys, Derrick May, Matthew Herbert dj, or Laurent Garnier. Artists who are the perfect guests at a party featuring dance at centre stage: Lindstrom & Terje, Skrillex, Diplo, Paul Kalkbrenner, Justice djs, Modeselektor djs, Major Lazer, Soulwax, TNGHT or Seth Troxler among many others. And finally artists with their own approach and modernizers of established approaches: AlunaGeorge, Karenn, Jamie Lidell, Liars, Francesco Tristano, Fatima Al Qadiri, Delorean or Mykki Blanco.

Sónar+D, the new Sónar brand

Sónar+D is the evolution of the festival’s professional and new media areas, which presents a series of activities based around the same central theme: making the relationship between creativity, technology, mobility, innovation and business more visible and accessible. Sónar+D offers workshops and hackathons, interactive installations, product demos and presentations, services and entrepreneurial initiatives in the field of creativity, technology and music. There will also be conferences and meetings with the biggest names in the Sónar line-up, and live shows reflecting the culture of innovation through the use of new interactive devices. The creation of Sónar+D is the result of the collaboration between Sónar and the Mobile World Capital Barcelona. Sónar itself is part of a series of initiatives developed within the city in the next five years and framed in the Mobile World Festival, with the aim of promoting and spreading mobile technologies among citizens and companies. The new epicentre of Sónar+D will be Barcelona’s Palau de Congressos, although its activities and projects will be distributed across the other Sónar spaces and stages.

Sónar around the World

This weekend, Sónar begins its journey around the World with the first Sónar Reykjavik in Iceland (15 and 16 February), which will be followed by SonarSound Tokyo in Japan (6 and 7 April) and Sónar São Paulo in Brazil (24 and 25 May), culminating in the great celebration of Sónar Barcelona, on the 13, 14 and 15 June.

Over 1.2 million visitors in 20 years

In the festival’s 20-year history, Sónar has hosted more than 1.2 million visitors, from all over the world, with a gradual increase from the 6,000 participants at the first event to the stable average of 80,000 in the last ten years. The landmark of 100,000 visitors was reached in 2012. In these two decades, the festival has presented more than 7,000 artists, including groups, soloists, djs and artists from the world of music and disciplines such as audiovisuals, digital creation and multimedia art. It has always tracked down the most stimulating and relevant ideas on the Spanish and international scene, without forgetting the historical benchmarks that paved the way for subsequent generations.