Celebrating its 30th anniversary, with attendees from over 100 different countries, the festival debuted a reworked and refreshed Sónar by Day, with new, more comfortable areas, and marked musically by a wealth of genres ranging from Latin or African rhythms to the most radical forms of experimentation, passing through house and the hardest contemporary forms of dance music.

Likewise, Sónar+D presented a successful new ‘morning’ format, attended by 3.500 professionals and experts, fomenting links between arts, science and technology, encouraging new networks, and with a particular focus on the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence, among other issues.

The 30th anniversary celebrations will continue in September, with the festival curating the soundtrack for Barcelona’s iconic ‘Piromusical de La Mercé’. The next edition of Sónar Barcelona takes place on 13th, 14th, 15th June 2024.

More than 250 activities have taken place during Sónar 2023, including concerts, DJ sets, masterclasses, talks, panel discussions, open debates, installations and creative-technology showcases from more than 20 different countries.

The festival brought together more than 120,000 attendees, 51,000 at Sónar by Day and 69,000 at Sónar by Night. 68% of the audience was national, while the remaining 32% came from more than 100 different countries.

Sónar 2023 witnessed a spectacular, stunning return to the stage by Aphex Twin, the godfather of modern electronic music, as well as over huge live shows from BICEP live, Max Cooper 3D/AV live, Oneohtrix Point Never, Ryoji Ikeda, Eliza Rose, and Fever Ray, whose concert stole the hearts of the public at Sónar by Night. And of course, there was also Eric Prydz’s acclaimed immersive show HOLO; a hotly anticipated concert Bad Gyal, returning to Sónar as a global icon; a star turn from UK rapper Little Simz.

Sónar is already looking ahead to its 31st edition, which will take place on 13, 14 and 15 June 2024. A pre-sale of SonarPass and SonarPass+D (both standard and VIP) will be available this Tuesday 20th June at 12:00 noon. The public will be able to register for this pre-sale from tonight. More information at sonar.es and on the festival’s social media channels: @sonarfestival

Sónar 2023 presented epic sets by leading figures in contemporary dance music, both at Sónar by Day with Black Coffee and The Blessed Madonna, and at Sónar by Night, with Peggy Gou, Honey Dijon, and Solomun, joined by Saturday’s sets from Amelie Lens and Richie Hawtin, among others.

The astounding diversity of styles and perspectives in the national scene has been front and center at this year’s anniversary. From the premiere of Merca Bae’s live show ‘2048’, the debut ensemble of Kitty110 / LaBlackie / L’Beel or KYNE performing their recently released album to the sophisticated concepts of MANS O, the pairings of Carles Viarnès & Alba G. Corral and Santiago Latorre & Colin Self and CLARAGUILAR taking another leap forward in her career. Tonight sees more talent with brand new shows from La Zowi and Samantha Hudson, plus other Gen Z icons such as Oro Jondo, Rusowsky, Orslok and Parkineos.

The impact of Artificial Intelligence in the arts, especially on music and AV, has been the central topic of conversation during the three days of Sónar+D. MIT Media Lab researcher Kate Darling, the world’s leading robot ethics gave us a glimpse into the future of human-robot relations in her talk presented by SEIDOR, while CJ Carr, one of the foremost experts on AI in music, explained how he uses AI as a compositional tool. Across both days, the AI & Web3 Creatives Summit, co-organised by Sónar+D and UPF Ventures examined the role of AI in music and film, as well as the role of Web3 in the creative and media sectors. The UB (University of Barcelona) closed its International Symposium on Soundscape, Advanced Music and AI by presenting a study on LEÏTI’s work with soundscapes. Meanwhile, the SonarMies activity ‘Reprocessing… Piano + AI’ turned the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion into an open laboratory in a project co-created by Sónar and the UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya).

With more than 80 creative-technological projects from more than 20 countries, the new Project Area allowed for discovery of local and international talents as well as becoming a meeting place and agora for Sónar by Day, with the general festival audience able to play listen and interact with video games, new musical tools and various prototypes.

Sónar’s 30th anniversary celebrations will continue on September, when the festival curates the soundtrack for Barcelona’s iconic Piromusical de La Mercè. In 2024, Sónar will again take place in Barcelona on 13, 14 and 15 June, following 3rd edition of Sónar Lisboa (22, 23 and 24 March) and the 8th edition of Sónar Istanbul (26 and 27 April).

H/T Sónar festival.