Three decades are not fulfilled every day and they go a long way. Here is a summary (nothing exhaustive) of the 30 years of the festival that has turned Barcelona into the epicenter of avant-garde music and art.
1994: Enric Palau, Ricard Robles and Sergio Caballero founded the International Festival of Advanced Music. The first edition takes place on Thursday June 2, 1994 during the day at the CCCB and at night at the Apolo. Sven Väth, Laurent Garnier and Geometric Splendor perform.
nineteen ninety five: Orbital make their debut at the festival, which gets its first ‘sold out’ and moves to Poble Espanyol.
nineteen ninety six: During a powerful session by Jeff Mills the electricity melts, leaving the venue dark and without sound for a few minutes.
1997: Transfer to Mar Bella with Daft Punk, who premiere their masterpiece ‘Homework’ with their faces uncovered. They were still not wearing their robot helmets to protect their identity. The festival becomes the first to offer a substance control service with Energy Control.
1998: Electronic music dads Kraftwerk perform at the festival in Spiderman costumes and an ultraviolet light show.
1999: Richie Hawtin performs for the first time under his alias Plastikman at Sónar.
2000: The turn of the millennium is celebrated with a historic concert by Stockhausen at Tivoli, Marc Almond and Laurent Garnier, who is performing by surprise at the festival under the alias… DJ Ham.
2001: Sónar moves to Fira de GranVía and the era of bumper cars begins. Aphex Twin and Sonic Youth perform for the first time. John Peel visits the festival and gives away one of his famous ‘Peel Sessions’.
2002: Diego Armando Maradona is the protagonist of the festival’s campaign, which is making its international debut with events in London, Hamburg and Tokyo. A couple faithful to the event from the beginning baptizes his son with the name of Sónar.
2003: The festival celebrates 10 years with Matthew Herbert and his big band at L’Auditori and Björk performs for the first time in a historic concert. Aphex Twin closes his session with the ‘Aserejé’ by Las Ketchup.
2004: The OBC join Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pan Sonic and Fennesz in a historic concert at L’Auditori. The festival crosses the Atlantic and lands in Sao Paolo and Guadalajara (Mexico).
2005: First visit of The Chemical Brothers to the festival. MIA and Diplo provide a reggaeton-filled set featuring ‘La Gasolina’ and a then-unknown Kanye West leaps onto the stage during De La Soul’s concert.
2006: Pompeu Fabra presents the ReacTable, a new instrument for composing electronic music that works as an interface. Star performances from Chic and the group of the moment, Scissor Sisters, who give a surprise gig under the false name of White Diet.
2007: More reggaeton with Nathy Peluso and Bomba Estéreo and thunderous noise from Sunn O))). Two legends of the height of Beastie Boys and Devo visit the festival, which travels to Seoul and Buenos Aires.
2008: La Pajarraca, the hooligan protagonist of that year’s campaign (played by Sergio Caballero) is chosen to represent Spain in Eurovision.
2009: First edition of Sónar Kids, concerts by Caribou, Lucrecia Dalt and Tiger & Woods. Sound with an English accent in New York, London and Washington.
2010: On the occasion of the Xacobeo year, Sónar is held simultaneously between A Coruña and Barcelona. 2Manydjs, Dizzee Rascal, Roxy Music and John Talabot perform.
2011: Richie Hawtin plays at the Mercat de la Boqueria (in 2017 he would do it at a skate park in Badalona).
2012: Lana del Rey debuts in Spain presenting her debut album, ‘Born to die’.
2013: First edition of Sónar + D and transfer of Sónar de Día to Fira. Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys and Skrillex share the bill with up-and-coming rapper C. Tangana, who is accompanied by Alizzz. Sónar travels to Reykjavík, where another at the time unknown performs, Bad Gyal.
2014: James Murphy, leader of LCD Sound System, leads DESPACIO, an immersive circular club with the DJ in the small capacity center that delights his fans.
2015: Arca sets foot at Sónar for the first time and rapper ASAP Rocky (today the father of a family with Rihanna) comes out to sing on stage during Skrillex’s performance.
2016: Olafur Eliasson presents his daisy-shaped solar-powered lamps at Sónar+D with which he aspires to illuminate 1,000 million homes that do not have access to the electricity grid.
2017: Ondas Award for Sónar, which that year is also held in Istanbul and breaks its audience record with 123,000 people. Bad Gyal’s first performance.
2018: Rosalía presents ‘El mal querer’ and is crowned as a star. To celebrate its 25th anniversary, Sonar calls out to extraterrestrial intelligence and sends 10-second clips from Sakamoto, Richie Hawtin and Alva Noto to a potentially habitable exoplanet, recording their son’s heartbeat. Valtonyc, exiled in Belgium, is symbolically programmed on a stage that remained silent.
2019: Bad Bunny sweeps the nocturnal Sónar.
2020: The pandemic causes the live shows to not be held at the festival.
Related news
2021: Despite the restrictions, the festival brings together more than 15,000 spectators and launches a collaboration with IDEAL, where immersive shows such as John Talabot’s are held.
2022: C. Tangana is crowned at the festival in the second most popular edition in its history, with 122,000 people. Lisbon joins the network of cities that have hosted a spin off of the festival.
