The 31st edition of the Sónar festival has unveiled its full lineup with just five weeks to go before the spaces of Fira de Montjuïc and Gran Via open their doors to the crème de la crème of international electronic music. This edition will feature artists such as Air, Richie Hawtin, Jessie Ware, Vince Staples, Charlotte de Witte, Folamour, and flamenco guitarist Yerai Cortés. Over 200 sonic proposals will be open to the city throughout the Sonar Week, expanding the festival to Poble Espanyol with the OFF Sónar, Universitat Pompeu Fabra with the Rain Film Festival, the Mies Van der Rohe pavilion, and Casa Batlló, which will take center stage this year with a show around The Chemical Brothers’ imagery. A mosaic of proposals impossible to define in a few words, complemented once again by the Sónar D encounters. In its 12th edition, the festival within the festival focusing on ideas and technology will feature speakers such as Chilean architect Nicole L’huillier, abogamer Micaela Mantegna, writers Tim Maughan and Joanne McNeil, and art director Isabelita Virtual to discuss the practical application of artificial intelligence.
This year’s poster represents a blend “between the pioneers of electronic dance music and micro-scenes, hyperlocal projects with their own personality but interconnected,” as outlined by the festival’s co-director, Ricard Robles, in the presentation held this Wednesday. “Scenes that emerge from countless influences, diasporas, and exchange of experiences that make up a hyper-fragmented global map but representative of the popular culture of our time.”
The multiplicity of genres and subgenres of dance music, from ambient to black metal through hyperpop, will be represented in this new edition of the music festival that opens a door led by the French duo Air, who will perform their debut album Moon Safari in its entirety. Also on the lineup are Jessie Ware, queen of the dance floor, as well as rappers Vince Staples and Kaytranada, the latter a two-time Grammy winner and an opening act for The Weeknd. Four big names for a nocturnal Sónar that will pay tribute to techno and house music with the presence of Germans Paul Kalkbrenner and Ben Böhmer, Belgian Charlotte de Witte, and scene veterans like Richie Hawtin, who will present his new show DEX EFX XOX, and Kerri Chandler, who will mix with open reels, without digital aids to sync the tracks.
This night edition will also feature the alliance with Printworks, the legendary London club that will take over the SonarLab space with a 10 meters high and 6 meters wide screen adorned with its own light design, where artists such as Casisdead, KI/KI, JASSS, or DJ Flight
Sónar by Day will feature its own “hit makers”, as Enric Palau, co-director of the festival, has dubbed them. These are artists who have created major hits that bring electronic music to a wider audience, such as the French Laurent Garnier and Folamour, or Miss Kittin and David Vunk, who will join forces on Saturday. These artists will close the daytime sessions, which include surprises like the debut performance of flamenco guitarist Yerai Cortés, who will be accompanied by six palm trees, and will also present his new music video produced by C. Tangana, with whom he toured recently. A fusion of classical instruments and electronic music that will also be present in the performances by percussionist Valentina Magaletti or pianist Kelly Moran, alongside appearances by Judeline and Pablo Drexler with their new project.
Dance will be another highlight of Sónar by Day, which in this edition will feature artists who make people dance, as well as several projects where body movement and choreographies will take center stage. This includes the collaboration between the British artist Lee Gamble and the Spanish choreographer Candela Capitán. The project Gabber Eleganza will showcase the movements of hardcore music on stage, while Asian Dope Boys and their show Physis will bring together 17 artists based between Beijing and Berlin for a six-hour spectacle, blending skate imagery with Japanese butoh theater.
Artificial intelligence, a term seemingly destined to define our era, will also take center stage at the 31st edition of the advanced music festival, featuring Iranian artist Sevdaliza and British musician Rob Clouth, who incorporates AI into his music. However, where these initials will be most prominent is at Sónar D, which will kick off its program with the lecture “Generating Panic?”, a panel discussion on the fears provoked by this new technology in the cultural industries. The event will also delve into how AI is reshaping the nature of art, with contributions from Chilean artist Nicole L’Huillier, a collaborator of MIT, CERN, and NASA, and designer Sasha Constanza-Chock, who will explore strategies to ensure that this new technology is inclusive in both its design and development. Additionally, Micaela Mantegna, who identifies as an abogamer, will address intellectual property in generative artificial intelligence.
The most thoughtful proposals from D will be complemented by preformative activities such as the installation that oceanographer Joan Llort has prepared at the Mies Van Der Rohe pavilion alongside Entangled Others to showcase the underwater life of the mesopelagic zone, the deepest and most unknown areas of the oceans, or the feedback and AI experiment that artist Marta Verde will carry out as part of her intervention titled Surprise. Disruptive proposals that will reach Casa Batlló, with a show in The Cube space inspired by The Chemical Brothers’ imagery, as well as at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, which will host the second edition of the Rain Film Festival, the international film festival generated with AI that has received over 230 submissions this year.
The OFF Sónar concludes with over 80 concerts, finalizing this edition of Sónar, which is the second to last before the renovation of the MNAC forces its complete relocation to the Fira Gran Via de l’Hospitalet in 2026. “It’s 99% there,” commented Ricard Robles, pointing out that Sónar is “a mutating festival” that constantly evolves to turn Barcelona into the global capital of electronic music for a week.
