Sónar

Sónar is a festival dedicated to music, creativity and technology, founded in Barcelona in 1994 by Ricard Robles, Enric Palau, and Sergi Caballero. The festival has been divided into two parts since its inception: Sónar by Day and Sónar by Night, with a three-day congress, Sónar+D dedicated to Creativity, Technology and Business running concurrently since 2013. As well as the flagship event in Barcelona, Sónar hosts events around the world, with annual festivals having taken place in Bogota, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong and Reykjavik.

In 2023, the 30th anniversary of the festival was held in Barcelona, along with Sónar festivals in Lisbon (for the 2nd time) and Istanbul (7th time).

Artists that have performed at Sónar include Björk, Thom Yorke, Jean-Michel Jarre, Duran Duran, Grace Jones, Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Kraftwerk, Gorillaz, New Order, Skrillex, Diplo, M.I.A., Arca, Rosalía, Yo La Tengo, Chic, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Aphex Twin, Richie Hawtin and Laurent Garnier.

Writing in 2017, the New York Times stated: “Sónar has built itself into a European institution... It’s a festival of the experimental and the crowd-pleasing, the subtle and the unsubtle, scaled from quiet small-auditorium performances to seismic stadium dance music....”