This year’s Sonar festival took place over three days and nights and featured an incredibly diverse range of artists, DJs, designers and musicians. The producers of the festival describe the event as in touch with the most up-to-date developments and featuring the most relevant national and international artists and with a line-up starring Laurent Garnier, Jeff Mills, Matthew Herbert (along with a 20 piece big band), Carl Cox, Underworld, Bjork, Ralph Lawson, Fabio, DJ Krush, Miss Kittin, Misstress Barbara, Richie Hawtin, Aphex Twin, Fat Truckers, DJ Hell, Sideral, Ladytron (and this list barely scratches the surface) you soon realise that they’re not kidding. At times the selection was simply overwhelming, leaving visitors with little choice but to indulge their senses in a most immoderate manner. One could almost become blasé about acts that would, under other circumstances, be a massive drawcard in their own right. Sonar2003 boasted in excess of 300 activities including DJ sets, concerts, films, interactive installations, art and design.

This year, the action took place from midday on June 12 until 8am on June 15, with a couple of short breaks for those needing a pit stop. The festival is divided into day and night sessions (you can buy tickets for the whole festival or specific sessions) and for the first time, all three Sonar by Night sessions sold out. In total, almost 90,000 people from over 40 different countries attended and this figure has been growing exponentially over the past few years as praise for the festival spreads around the globe.

The Sonar by Day sessions were split into five music areas (Lab, Village, Hall, Dome and Complex), plus Sonarcinema (a cinema screening video-art, experimental cinema, shorts, documentaries with links to electronic music etc), Sonarama (a showcase installation of audio-visual equipment and demonstrations) a professional area (which houses a record fair, the conferences and debates), a press/VIP area and plenty of interactive installations to explore. Housed in Barcelona’s Contemporary Culture Centre (CCCB), the site is a stone’s throw from La Rambla and the gorgeous Gothic Quarter.

Each of the five music areas featured various record label showcases across the course of the three days. SonarVillage took the relaxed approach. Surrounded by bars, festivalgoers could chill on the grass under the trees or dance and drink in the sunshine. The music policy was equally relaxed and trod a path of indietronics and jazz. A Village highlight was the extraordinarily talented Bugge Wesseltoft from Norway, who appeared with an ensemble thanks to Jazzland (other artists appearing for Jazzland included Strangefruit and On/Off). The Anticon artists Sole, Themselves and Sage Francis; hip hop star Prefuse 73; Safety Scissors and the Puppetmastaz were among other acts in the Village who drew major crowds despite stiff competition on the timetable. The not-so-clinical SonarLab was my favourite area and the main difficulty with the Lab was dragging oneself away in order to make it to Sonar by Night sessions on time. The closing acts of the three days were 2020’s Ralph Lawson, drum and bass heavyweight Fabio and the Wall of Sound label’s Alvin C and Mark Jones. Ralph endeared himself to the crowd by nicking off with their joints, Fabio brought the house down by dropping D-Kay and Epsilon’s Barcelona and the WoS boys showed their love by walking us through a history of Wall of Sound with gem after gem from the vault. Miss Kittin played before Fabio and it was clear that her electro flavour was the plato del dia but the downside of that… you couldn’t move an inch.

Out back, SonarDome kept rocking from its Thursday afternoon of Cheap artists Patrick Pulsinger, Twinnie and Quehenberger through to Saturday evening’s Mutek showcase featuring Tim Hecker, Vincent Lemieux, Akufen and Deadbeat. Not as motley an assortment of artists as the Lab, the Dome had consistent tech and avant-garde leanings. Acts in the SonarHall focused on how dance music and electronica have influenced other musical disciplines, particularly pop, which made for an interesting departure from the other areas (a highlight was the huge ensemble Jaga Jazzist) whilst SonarComplex, hidden beneath the gallery areas of installations, was distinctly experimental. One of the first realisations that you reach is the fact that for every act you will see, there are at least three others that you’ll miss. You just have to get over that and make the most of the 72 hours of madness ahead of you.

Thursday night action focused on L’Auditori where Matthew Herbert and a 16-piece big band were showcasing his recently released “Goodbye Swingtime” album. The first show sold out so quickly that a second show was announced (which also sold out in several days). The venue was ideal for capturing the big band atmosphere and each song drew the audience further into the magic. The album’s guest vocalists were all flown in to Barcelona for the event – Berlin-based Jamie Liddell (who also appeared in the SonarComplex as a solo artist), New York’s Arto Lindsay whose on-stage gravitas was utterly mesmerising and the divine Dani Siciliano who also contributed her dulcet tones to the encore by singing a single note that was then sampled and manipulated into a breathtaking soundscape. Herbert’s interaction with the audience was superb, leaving us with no doubt as to his passion for taking music to new places. There was humour – 20 men in tuxedos setting aside their instruments and ripping up newspapers for a sample, or the entire audience (almost) on cue, taking flash photos that sent the room into a blaze of white light, then every band member turned their cameras on the audience and ‘flashed’ us. Leaving L’Auditori on a high, there were no further ‘official’ Sonar activities on Thursday night so we headed to a Eukatech gig at a nearby club. The cheesy house music filtering out the door should have been enough to deter us but with free passes in our hand (not hard to come by at Sonar time – make sure you look at the flyers you’re handed before casting them aside) we persisted. My fearless travelling companero tracked down Nils Hess from Eukatach to find out what was happening and he wasn’t scheduled to play until 4am. We opted to move on to La Terrazza for the Poker Flat Records night with Steve Bug, the Martini Brothers, Cle and Vincenzo. Once we found the club (more of a mission than we expected) we settled in for a Martini Brothers set that had much stronger techno leanings than the electroclash sound that dominated their Australian tour at New Years.

The Sonar by Night sessions on Friday and Saturday were held in a complex at Fira Gran Via (M2), a fair distance from the city but a shuttle bus service is available from the bottom of La Rambla. The queue on the first night was staggering, so we opted to catch the train to Ildefons Cerda and walk from there (about 20 minutes). Unfortunately this wasn’t an option on the return journey because the trains had stopped running by that stage, so we were faced with a 2-hour wait. The situation went from frustrating to ridiculous when someone found out how to turn on the sprinkler system and managed to saturate about a quarter of the people in the queue. We think that the crew hosting a small “anti-Sonar” gathering nearby may have been behind the shenanigans. The low point of the festival was the pair of handprints I acquired on my back as someone in the queue behind me “assisted” me onto the next bus, probably out of desperation to get home and get dry. The organisers must have pulled out all the stops for the following night, because there was a steady stream of buses and a far happier crowd as a result.

The large, indoor SonarClub was kicked off by headliners Bjork on Friday night and Underworld on Saturday, then followed up on both nights with a who’s who of techno stars Mark Bell, Richie Hawtin and Misstress Barbara on Friday and Jeff Mills, Scan X and Carl Cox on Saturday. The promise of BPMs galore was ably fulfilled and the pace and bass did not let up. On Friday, open-air SonarPub moved from electro to techno whilst managing to cross paths with rock music along the way whilst on Saturday it was a case of ‘house music all night long’. Gilles Peterson was entertaining the crowd with percussive rhythms and sexy swing, but it was the deep soulful tracks selected by Darshan Jesrani of Metro Area that really got me dancing. Later, Laurent Garnier played the set of the festival moving from drum and bass, acid, techno, house, even disco and with Bugge Wesseltoft alongside, he played some of the most gorgeous jazzy tunes your heart could desire. I can only liken the set to a sculpture that allows you to appreciate its splendour from every possible angle and just when you think you have it figured out, you catch something that you haven’t seen before, which draws you in all over again. Absolute magic!

SonarPark hosted breaks, drum and bass and hip hop on Friday and on Saturday these styles gave way to electro of all shapes and sizes. Spanish hip hop legend Mucho Muchacho and DJ Krush’s signature abstract style were standouts on Friday. Several thousand people answering Mucho’s callout “B-boys?” with a resounding “siiiii” will live on in my memory for a long time. Chronic swear-bears, Fat Truckers played the loudest set I have ever experienced and abused the crowd until they received the response they desired. “What you f**king like Barcelona?”... was met with “you might want to tone it down, we’re being recorded for the f**king BBC” from a bandmate. Get the picture? Afterwards, DJ Hell played a much harder-edged set than expected, proving he’s more than an electroclash poster boy.

Of all the acts, Bjork was obviously a massive crowd-puller. Her solo gigs in Spain are incredibly popular and although I’m a huge fan, her set had such a melancholy feel that I just couldn’t stay put for its entirety. The impact of the transport problems on Friday was obvious – despite large crowds in SonarClub for Bjork, poor Trevor Jackson (of Playgroup) was playing to an empty arena in SonarPub. He looked highly disappointed by the situation and looking out to an arena containing less than a dozen people when it holds several thousand must be heartbreaking.

Sonar’s production standards were high and the visuals, in particular, were incredible on both nights. Solu, Pfadfinderei, Tina Frank and Tomato were the visual artists who added yet another dimension to the DJs and live acts. Sonar’s commitment to design in every aspect of the festival is outstanding, from the logos, flyers and catalogues to web design and in-festival installations and visuals; the result is sheer sensory gratification. Extensive coverage of the festival is available at www.sonar.es and audio and video streams can be accessed at http://sonar.emisiondigital.com/ingles/. Part of the magic of Sonar revolves around how truly international it is. How often are you waiting for your drinks at a bar and hear six or seven languages being spoken in a matter of minutes? The commitment to quality artists has always been a Sonar hallmark and this continues to be the case. The diversity of artists involved is astounding and you will have many opportunities to see artists perform who may never make it to Australia. But everyone has their own reasons for being there. For many, the chance to hang out in the beautiful city of Barcelona, in the sunshine, beer in hand, wicked tunes coming from every direction is reason enough.

Additional resources:

Getting there: Return flights to major European cities vary greatly in price depending on your chosen airline, your date of departure from Australia and whether your travel agent specialises in low-cost travel. You can also visit Europe as part of a round-the-world fare (which can work out to be better value if you’re planning to visit more than one continent). Make sure you shop around and check online to compare prices. Head HERE for a great starting point.

Getting around: Barcelona’s Metro and rail systems are pretty efficient so getting from place to place is not much hassle. You’ll be OK on your way out but on your way home you’ll need to cab it. Fortunately of all European countries, Spain isn’t too expensive.

Accommodation:
Barcelona is a popular destination all-year round and remember that Sonar is staged in the early European summer, attracting thousands of visitors. Book early to make sure you have plenty of choices in your price range.

Door prices: A ticket to the entire festival will set you back about 95€ (approx 165AUD), Matthew Herbert’s show was a bargain at 12€ (20AUD), club entry varies but is generally 10-20€. Many artists and DJs arrive at Sonar time and play at local clubs so you’ll be spoiled for choice. In fact, there were some non-Sonar events in the weeks before and after that made me wish I could stay all month. Flyers actually mean something too – many offer free entry to good clubs, or at least discounted entry and free drinks.

Drink prices: If you’re a beer drinker, you’re in luck. Beers (although they’re generally not as large as in Australia) cost around 3€, while mixed drinks cost about twice as much (but nips tend to be VERY generous!)