Every year in the middle of June, 10.000’s of dance music fans and industry professionals come to Barcelona for one of the most important festival in our scene: Sónar.
The activities of Sónar Barcelona are divided into two major locations: Sónar de Dia, located in Fira Montjuïc, with concerts and showcases and Sónar + D, the International Congress on the digital transformation of creative industries to enhance talent, knowledge exchange and business opportunities; and the great Sónar de Noche shows at Fira Gran Via in L'Hospitalet, where the most important names of the international music scene are presented.
As always, there's also plenty of action going down outside the Sónar grounds, too: the so-called Sonar Off, officially named as the Off Week Barcelona, of which you can read our review below.
Before we go more into detail, let me first sum up some of our other personal highlights of the BCN Off Week 2017 :
* the Sincopat vs Selador Showcase @ Small's Club with an amazing line-up consisting of AFFKT, Dave Seaman, Florian Kruse, Just Her, Justin Massei, Mattia Pompeo, Native Behavior, Steve Parry, Upercent & Wally Lopez
* the Parallel & Seven Villas Roof Top Showcase @ Catwalk Club hosted by label owners Monkey Brothers (Parallel) & Pablo Bolivar (Seven Villas), + some nice special guest such as Mihai Popoviciu, youANDme & Echonomist
* the Common Sense & Friends Showcase, known from Club der Visionaere Berlin, @ Club Belafonte with Livio & Roby, Guido Schneider, Cesar Merveille, Eveline Fink & Digitaline (live)
* 4 days of DJ/Live Sets from some of the most talented artists from the worldwide electronic scene, everday from 14 till 21 H, and for free @ the Suara Clothing Store: Fernando Lagreca Live, Doctor Dru, Reinier Zonneveld, Uner, Giorgia Angiuli Live, Rafael Cerato, Oliver Koletzki,… and of course Suara label head himself Coyu!
* BoHo @ CDLC: CDLC at the famous Passeig Maritim in Barceloneta, restaurant during the day, club during the night, is definitely one of the most beautiful places in Barcelona: a blend of cultures, in decoration and in an eclectic food style of Mediterranean & Asian cuisines with Arabian & Morrocan touches. CDLC & it’s resident-DJ Camilo Franco (famous from his Space Ibiza residency) recently launched a great new concept called “We are BoHo!”: a collaborative effort of creative minds which mixes Deep House music, art , technology & the universe to create a unique experience with BoHo visuals, 3D animations and mothion graphics. During Sonar they did a complete BoHo weekend, on day 1 the special guest was Serge Devant (Crosstown Rebels), but we went on day 2 where we heard a great guest set by Claudio Ricci from Ibiza.
* triple Mobilee Showcase: 1 time in the night, 2 times on the roof! For the night party Mobilee teamed up with Loud & Contact at OW Club, formerly known as Under Club and re-opening fully upgraded during Off Week 2017. Day after we went to their first of 2 rooftop parties at Hotel Diagonal, a slick hotel on Avinguda Diagonal, surrounded by a spectacular view of Barcelona, that occasionally hosts parties on the roof, especially during Sonar Festival. The rooftop is a wood-paneled space with a small pool and room for less than 200 people. Mobilee, Resident Advisor and local promoter Monkey Bar have all put on daytime soirees there, usually running from 2:00 PM until 9:00 PM. Due to the small capacity of the space, most events are invite-only. We strongly suggest you to register and maybe you will have the luck to attend next time.
And now let’s get a bit into detail about 3 special events that we picked out of the endless list:
* Thursday 15/06/’17: Creaductions Arena presents 15 Years Get Physical
A fantastic Open Air - Day Time Party in a superb special venue! Creaductions, an experienced team of culturally aware promoters, took over a historic former bullring in Barcelona during 3 days for 3 magical open air events to celebrate their second anniversary and show off their most unique venue, at Plaza de Toros La Monumental. As they have done in previous years, these parties take place at La Monumental, formerly the largest bullring in Barcelona, but here going under the name of La Gran Corrida Cultural. It is a spectacular setting built in 1914 and at one time held nearly 20,000 people. No longer in use as a bullring, it has a breathtaking architectural style and these events a rare chance to experience one of Barcelona’s most amazing monuments in the hot sun. We went on day 1 and enjoyed the Get Physical Music showcase celebrating it´s 15 years of activity featuring all the key artists from the label: DJ T., M.A.N.D.Y. & Booka Shade.
* Friday 16/06/’17: Diynamic Music Festival @ Parc del Forum
Diynamic Music returned to Barcelona in full force for its annual Off-Week Showcase: 2 big areas with the complete Diynamic crew on the line-up, in a great open-air venue: Parc del Forum. Fantastic music all day long from Musumeci, Karmon, Undercatt, Kollektiv Turmstrasse (live), Thyladomid, NTFO, Ost & Kjex (live), Magdalena, Johannes Brecht (live) & HOSH + on-point top sets from the spearheads Adriatique & label boss Solomun, who played an extended set of 3 hours full of brand-new music. And special credits go to Lehar who was the pleasant surprise of the day: totally crazy set which really blew us away!
* Sunday 18/06: Cocoon Showcase @ Pacha
Cocoon is built on quite a simple ethos which has never changed but the way the music and the experiences are delivered has never stopped evolving. A fierce passion to move forward and offer more is embedded in the DNA, Sven Väth saw to that 20 years ago. Perfect night to close this Off Week in style: Sven Vath in super shape played a great extended set, after Carola Pisaturo & Tim Green did the perfect warm-up. Went to many Pacha Clubs all over the world but Pacha in BCN must definitely be one of the best: not so posh as Pacha Ibiza, on the contrary, really an underground feel with a massive soundsystem, one of the best in BCN if you ask me. And Cocoon always delivers, especially if Sven Vath is headlining. So the perfect combo for our BCN Off closing party!
Last but not least, if you have the chance or luck to find an after-party in one of the secret warehouses in Poble Nou BCN, then do it, you won’t regret! ;-)
(written by Pedro Mercado - http://www.facebook.com/pedromercado.eu - for Rotationz, The Heart Of Club Nature - http://www.facebook.com/rotationz)