Sonar Festival Live Review

OK, so who in their right mind wouldn’t want to spend a long weekend in lovely sunny Barcelona surrounded by chic, switched on, and frankly gorgeous Europeans while being treated to a fine selection of the best tunes around? 

Exactly, not you.

But if you didn’t make it to Sonar 2010, MTV braved the budget airlines to report back from the frontline.
 
Sonar (also known as the “International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art" – phew!) offers a wide selection of electronic music, from the best new and alternative sounds at the centrally located, skilfully curated Sonar By Day - to superstar artists and killer DJs at the massive Sonar By Night rave-up, home to over 50,000 party people! 

There’s so much on offer it’s impossible to see everything, but the overall buzz about music is so immense, you’ll leave with a big shopping list of things to check out when you get home. And the nighttime event has dodgems. At 5am.
 
We limbered up for the main event at a wicked dubstep showcase put on by the lovely people at Hyperdub and FACT Magazine = brains frazzled by all sorts of madness including boss man Kode9 and rising star Ikonika.

This is something Sonar really excels at: under-the-radar, cutting edge music presented by knowledgeable party people. More such fun was to be found thanks to the likes of the legendary Kompakt crew and Glasgow’s Numbers.
 
Sonar By Day also excelled with highlights coming from our own Professor Green and New Young Pony Club, local favourites Delorean, jazz freakers Caribou, and new names Pursuit Grooves, Fatima, Post War Years and Moodyman.
 
As for naughty night time - over the three nights we were treated to one of the best sets we’ve seen Hot Chip play in a long time, a proper late-night dirty LCD Soundsystem show (where everyone knew the old tunes as well as Drunk Girls…), visual trickery from the ever reliable Chemical Brothers, classic hits from a joyously reformed Roxy Music, and of course a bellyful of hits from our boy Dizzee Rascal. 

Add to this some brain-meltery from the likes of Hudson Mohwake, Flying Lotus, massive DJ sets from John Talabot, DJ Hell, Annie Nightingale, and a whole lot of fun with the Sugarhill Gang. Blimey.
 
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again… Forget the UK! Sonar Festival is without a doubt one of the festival experiences you can find in the world.

Book your flights for 2011 now!