SÓNAR BARCELONA ANNOUNCES FIRST NAMES FOR 2023 VIA NEW VISUAL CAMPAIGN.

The 30th anniversary of Sónar promises to be a spectacular celebration, a huge party that will include more than 100 live shows and DJ sets. As always, the festival features the newest and most influential sounds of contemporary electronic music, from dance-floor heat to experiments that explore new sonic languages.

The lineup for the 30th anniversary pays tribute to club culture, celebrating both the DJ as a current-day cultural symbol and the diversity of styles in today’s global scene. With both emblematic artists and the hottest new names, thirty years after its birth Sónar remains a space for discovery and inspiration, serving as a mirror and platform for local and international artists.

The biggest names in electronic music

Sónar 2023 will be headlined by Bicep, one of the most acclaimed electronic live acts to emerge from the UK in the past decade. DJs Peggy Gou, Honey Dijon and The Blessed Madonna will deliver three of the brightest sets of this edition, while Solomun will finally make his debut at Sónar and Amelie Lens returns to turn SonarClub upside down. The line-up is rounded off by two of the festival’s most loyal friends: Laurent Garnier and Richie Hawtin.

Sónar has always been a space for global club music. 2023 is no different, with diversity and innovation present in the freshness of Logic1000; rejuvenated jungle from SHERELLE x Kode9; ballroom house and drum’n’bass legends MikeQ and DJ Marky & MC GQ; plus latinx club flag bearers Nick León, Manuka Honey, and Dinamarca. They’re joined by talented selectors CC:DISCO!, Eliza Rose and Carista; local agitators JOVENDELAPERLA and Baba Sy; UK Garage stalwart DJ EZ; Deena Abdelwahed’s borderless music; Omagoqa’s heavy rhythms; and genre-colliding DJ sets from Anz, Ahahadream, and Aquarian.

Back-to-backs are a crucial part of the lineup. There’s colourful techno from ISAbella b2b Roza Terenzi; hypnotic Brazilian duo BADSISTA b2b Cashu; late-night psychedelia by Call Super b2b Sedef Adasi; Granada ‘girl group’ B2BBS; and UK radio icons Bradley Zero b2b Moxie.

30 years of Sónar: a visual campaign created by AI

This year Sónar has revisited 30 years of visual campaigns using Artificial Intelligence. This AI has carried out 29 training sessions, in each one of them attempting to recreate one of the visual campaigns from the past three decades. Seeking to create images that could fit in each of these campaigns, the AI has trained itself and generated a multitude of trial and error results. It is in the beauty of these errors that Sónar has found the visual identity of its 30th anniversary.

By riffing on its legacy of unconventional approaches to festival branding, Sónar is processing 30 years of its history through innovation, using a new technology that’s itself in constant evolution.

Until Sunday 4th December at 23:59h (CET), SonarPasses, VIP SonarPasses and Delegate Passes remain on sale at a special first release price. From Monday 5th December, they’ll be on sale for the standard, higher price. More ticket types will go on sale in the near future. Buy your tickets here