Sónar: Where the Festival Meets the Conference

Sónar has been running in Barcelona since the 1990s, alongside a professional and technology programme that most attendees ignore and should not. For most of its life it also had an unusual structure — a daytime event and a night-time event, at different sites, on opposite sides of the city — and that structure is the thing most guides still describe.

The format changed, and it matters for planning

The 2026 edition dropped the split. All of the musical programming was concentrated at the Fira Gran Via site in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, with works under way at the Fira de Montjuïc venue that had hosted the daytime event, and the day/night division was retired in favour of long continuous days running from late afternoon into the morning.

Whether that is permanent or a consequence of the building works is not something the organisers have settled publicly, and the 2027 dates and venues have not been announced. So the practical advice is: do not plan around the two-site model until you have seen the official announcement for the year you are attending. The paragraphs below describe both shapes, because either could be what you get.

What the split was, and what replaced it

The daytime event was smaller in scale, held at a city venue, and its programming leaned toward the experimental, the live and the audio-visual. It was comfortable, walkable and social. You could hold a conversation. Sets tended to be shorter and more presentational — artists performing a specific piece of work rather than playing a long DJ set.

The night event was at a separate, much larger site: a full-scale club and concert festival running until the early morning. Bigger stages, bigger names, considerably more people, and a completely different energy.

The consolidated format keeps both registers but stacks them in one building across one very long day. The gain is that you no longer lose an hour crossing the city between them. The loss is the daytime event's particular atmosphere, which came partly from being outdoors in a city centre rather than inside a convention hall.

The technology strand

Alongside the music there is a programme of talks, presentations and installations dealing with technology, research and the industry — historically one of the more substantial attempts to put this conversation next to the music rather than in a separate building.

Most people who come for the music skip it entirely. If you have any interest in how the tools are made, or where the industry thinks it is going, it is frequently the most memorable part of the trip, and it happens during hours when nothing else is on.

Barcelona as the venue

The city is a genuine part of the experience, and it introduces a specific hazard: it is entirely possible to spend the days sightseeing, the nights at the festival, and to be destroyed by day three.

Pick a mode for each day. A morning at the beach and a night that ends at six is a choice you can make twice, not four times.

The satellite programme of off-events across city venues during the same week is extensive and often excellent. Some of the best rooms during that period are not officially part of the festival at all.

Practicalities

• Heat. June in Barcelona is hot, and any outdoor part of the site is uncomfortable in the afternoon. Water and shade, seriously.
• Transport late at night. The Gran Via site sits outside the city proper and is served by dedicated buses for the event; the metro runs late on certain nights only. Check which nights before you rely on it, because everyone leaves at once.
• Accommodation. Book early, and book near a metro line rather than near a venue. The venue can move between editions; the metro does not.
• Pickpocketing. Barcelona has a well-documented problem in crowded areas and on public transport. Front pockets, nothing in a backpack you care about.
• Language. Catalan and Spanish are both present. English is widely spoken in festival contexts.

Who it suits

People whose interest in electronic music extends past the dancefloor — live performance, audio-visual work, the experimental fringe, and the industry conversation. If you want twelve hours of techno, other events do that more single-mindedly.

If you want to see where the music is going rather than where it currently is, this is one of the better places to look.

Before you book

Programme structure, sites and ticket types have changed over the years. Confirm current details, dates and which pass covers which event through the official channels before booking flights.