Fourteen years on from its inception and Sonar, Barcelona's pioneering electronic and multimedia festival, is still going strong. Held annually in two urban venues - one in the centre and one on the outskirts, but spilling out into the city at large - Sonar has earnt a reputation for bringing together the ravers and the artists, the chin-strokers and the glowstick-twirlers (check out the festival adverts, a variety of elaborate expressionist scenes befitting of the National Gallery, but for the beaming acid house smileys that have invaded each frame).
This year's biggest draw was the Beastie Boys, who opened the festival on Thursday night with a tickets-only show at SonarPark, and followed up with a Friday night set in front of 30,000 at the cavernous SonarClub venue the following night. While the first night was billed as an exclusive instrumental show, both sets saw the Beasties mix it up, hip hop hits like Intergalactic interspersed with funky guitar-bass-drums workouts and the occasional burst of snotty hardcore. Elsewhere, France's rising Parisian label Ed Banger showed up on mass with performances from Uffie, DJ Mehdi, and a DJ set from Justice. Devo, 80s new wave oddities from Akron, Ohio dusted down the flowerpots to play their first European show in 17 years, with songs like Mongoloid and Whip It amongst the highlights. London's dubstep and garage scene was well-represented, with performances from Kode 9 and the Spaceape, Skream, Oris Jay, and a DJ set from the scene's main champion, Radio 1's Mary Anne Hobbs. And the experimental fringes were well represented too, with shows from Wolf Eyes, Sunn0))), and Editions Mego amongst the highlights.
It's all night techno that's Sonar's backbone, though, and it's here Sonar has competition. While names like Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, and Dave Clarke kept the pulse beating, recent years have seen increasing numbers of Sonar goers defecting to AntiSonar, an unlicensed rave held near the official Sonar site, or a broad range of beach parties organised by labels including the likes of Kompakt and B-Pitch. Has Sonar lived up to expectations this year? Have you been before, or do you plan to go next year? Or just cursing the fact you missed it?
