|
Sónar has a reputation for being the best electronic
music festival on the planet so expectations were high, but
were glad to say they've all been exceeded. With the vibrant
city of Barcelona as a backdrop, the only problem is finding
time to sleep!
It was the overall concept which worked so incredibly well.
Sónar is two festivals in one: SonarDay and SonarNight. SonarDay
ran from noon til 10pm, bang in the middle of the city, set
so aptly in the Museum of Contemporary Art. Most of the music
happened on 3 main stages: SonarVillage - a huge courtyard
filled with trees for shade and astroturf to sit down on and
a large stage area at the front, SonarLab - a shaded marquee
like construction with multicoloured deckchairs and dancefloor
at the front, and SonarDome - a big round tent with a wide
stage! The museum was filled with exhibitions, multimedia,
a couple more stages, and a plethora of audio/visual installations
by wicked people such as Coldcut & Hexstatic and Scanner.
Sonar by night was a completely different matter: running
from about 11pm to 8am with shuttle busses running from the
city centre to the venue. The first thing to strike you is
the enormity of the building (the olympic gymnastics and other
indoor sports venue), my spirits we're lifted when we spotted
it from the aeroplane on the way home! Three massive rooms:
1x20,000 capacity SonarClub with ridiculously cool bumper
cars at the back. Next to this was SonarPark, a huge (12-15,000)
band venue with some incredible visuals facilities. Then there
was the long, thin SonarPub, an open-air courtyard with a
stage at one end, bar/food places at the other, and bench
seating all the way down.
|
BACK
TO EVENTS
