Each June, Barcelona becomes one of the liveliest electronic music cities of the world as DJs, labels, and industry types from up-and-coming underground labels to headliner-heavy festivals descend upon the Catalan capital. Sónar 2025 was no different and certainly one to remember!
Now in its 32nd year, Sónar has always been regarded as an avant-garde cultural mainstay focusing on electronic music, technology, and the dance music community at large. Over the years the festival has gone through many iterations with earlier editions looking more like renegade warehouse parties and more recent years being more commercialized as you’d expect from a large-scale festival yet still curated for cutting-edge electronic music and arts enthusiasts.
The festival now has international editions across the world, and as anyone who has attended Sónar Barcelona knows, there is a tradition of “Off Sónar” parties. These events, once full of underground pop ups and “secret” sets in stellar locations (looking at you Richie Hawtin @ La Boquería or Luciano @ Estació França) have now become full-blown festivals themselves, some even officially associated with the Sónar brand across multiple locations in Barcelona.
Sónar itself, as the original main event, is still the crown jewel and you can find all about the 2025 edition and what to expect in 2026 below.
Did you attend Sónar 2025 in Barcelona? Thinking of going to the 2026 edition? Welcome to by Sónar 2025 Official Recap and Guide, designed to give you a view on what to expect in 2026, what went well in 2025, and what could be improved upon.
Enough with the preamble. Check out by Sónar 2025 official recap and guide below!
THIS YEAR’S CONTROVERSY
I would be amiss to not address the very public controversy intertwined with this year’s edition of Sónar, involving parent company Superstruct, the owner of many major European festivals, being acquired by private-equity investment firm KKR. Nearly 100 artists signed an open letter urging the festival to distance itself from KKR, which states that “KKR holds significant investments in companies arming and supporting Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. This association directly contradicts the ethical values that many artists and audiences hold.” (source: DJMag)
There were various artist cancellations in the leadup to Sónar 2025 in opposition to Sónar’s ties, by way of parent company Superstruct, to KKR. Many festivalgoers chose to skip the 2025 edition entirely. The opposition is understandable and also puts Sónar in an odd position as a festival that has always been a vocal proponent of diversity in culture, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, and identity.
You can read the the Sónar’s response and the actions they have taken here https://Sónar.es/en/Sónar-responds.
The remainder of this article will focus on the lineup, location, sound quality, and facilities as a general review and recap of Sónar Festival 2025 in Barcelona.
Sónar 2025 LINEUP
Photo Credit: Ariel Martini
As with nearly every new year of a longstanding festival, especially one with a history of cutting-edge lineups as Sónar has, there will always be naysayers and those with fond nostalgic feelings for when things were smaller and simpler and perhaps truly underground. If a large-scale festival is to exist and grow for decades, especially as certain subgenres of techno have entered the mainstage at more commercial festivals, there will be a tendency to draw a wider swath of the public and artists with wider mass appeal.
This isn’t to say that Sónar has become generic by any means, but rather that I believe the talent bookers have found an amazing and skillful balance between heavy-hitter headliners like Peggy Gou or BICEP’s incredible CHROMA AV/DJ set, interesting b2b’s like Skrillex and Blawan, killer local selectors like Nahoomie, and legends of their respective genres from Todd Terry or Hiroko Yamamura to Richie Hawtin or Armin van Buuren.
I would recommend attending Sónar By Day for a generally more house-heavy lineup and a more laidback daytime environment to check out some smaller acts alongside a few major headliners. If you’re looking to dance deep into the night with heavier, darker beats and see the sun some up with hard-hitting house or four-on-the-floor techno, check out Sónar By Night!
On a final note, this was my first year attending the phenomenal Sónar +D conference! I was able to catch a few engaging talks, performances, and panels on the changing landscape of the electronic music industry and was also treated to a tour of the incredible projects, creations, and installations by leading researchers, engineers, and physicists related to AI, music production, and even quantum computing. The lineup of speakers and selection of projects to showcase at Sónar +D was a definite highlight of the week for me and an engaging way to kick off each day of the festival for me!
You can check out my 6 best acts from Sónar 2025 here, and the entire 2025 lineup here.
Sónar 2025 LOCATION & TRANSPORTATION
Photo Credit: Ariel Martini
Sónar By Day takes place at the Fira Montjuïc, located in Plaça Espanya in Barcelona. The convention center has been home to the daytime Sónar +D and Sónar By Day events for quite some time now and is a more accessible location within the central parts of Barcelona as compared to the festival’s nighttime events at the Fira Gran Via.
Fira Montjuïc can be easily reached by taxi, metro to Plaça Espanya, bus, or even bicycle! I took the city’s Bicing service and parked no more than 20m away from the main entrance to the daytime events.
Fira Gran Via can be a little trickier, as you’ll need to take the L8 or L9S or R trains to the Europa | Fira metro stop should you go by train. Taking a taxi is fairly inexpensive as well if you share with a few friends, running roughly €25 euro total from the city center.
A standout for me this year, and somehow the first time I’ve utilized this service in many years of attending Sónar By Night, was the shuttle bus service that runs from Sónar By Day to Sónar By Night in the evening, and from Sónar By Night to Plaça Espanya in the early hours of the morning. The service is free to VIP passholders, and tickets can be easily purchased for €2.50 for general passholders.
Sónar 2025 SOUND QUALITY
Sónar, as one of the world’s premier electronic music festivals, has always prided itself on top-of-the-line sound. One thing about a lot of these acts, especially at Sónar By Night, is that they are loud and you can feel the bass pumping.
Attendees took to Reddit and other social platforms in the days following the festival to address issues they found with the quality of sound this year, and that generally focused on the SónarClub (main stage) at Sónar By night as well as the SónarCar (Boiler Room) stage.
I will agree that the lows seemed to be pushed to body-vibrating and muddying extremes, especially on the main stage. I do also tend to drift to the stages away from SónarClub due to the heat, lineup, and intensity of the sound. That being said, standing in the back center for Eric Prydz at SónarClub was amazing! The sound seemed to culminate in a happy medium there, as well as giving a great view to the incredible visuals of that particular set.
I found the sound quality at SónarVillage at Sónar By Day, as well as the outdoor stages at Sónar By Night (SónarPub and SónarLab) to be up to the festival’s top-notch standards. My group often positioned ourselves either in front of the sound booth or just in front of a speaker on either side of the middle part of the crowd at these stages. Overall great experience!
To close out this section, I’ll leave a friendly reminder to wear your ear plugs! I use a pair of Loops and the amount of people I saw who were up front without ear protection was crazy to me. Trust me and my tinnitus when we tell you that ear plugs are 100% worth it at these types of events!
FACILITIES – Food, Restrooms, and Chill Outs
Sónar has plenty of options for food and drinks, predominately located in the hall between the SónarLab and SónarPub stages. You can easily find this area as the “bumper car” hall, though some might know if better for the SónarCar (Boiler Room) stage! From Deleito burgers to frozen margaritas, Sónar provides a wide array of food and drinks to keep you fueled up for a long night and into the sunrise.
As for the restroom situation, for a festival that goes on into the early morning I would say that things are handled quite well at the Fira Gran Via. Staff pass by often to check cleanliness (as much as you can with a few thousand festivalgoers) and the lines are generally short. Should you be looking for an option with no lines throughout the night, the VIP upgrade might be worth it to you!
While the VIP spaces provide more luxurious chill out options like cushioned benches and swings, there are plenty of spots for you and your crew to take a breather and relax. The stadium seating-style area between security and SónarClub has plenty of bench space, along with all the benches and tables in the bumper car/SónarCar hall. Additionally, given the vastness of the venue, you can find plenty of room at the back of each of the stages where floorspace and ledges allow for sitting, stretching, and takkng a break in order to get back up and dance till the end.
WHAT’S IN STORE FOR Sónar 2026
The biggest shift will come in terms of venue and logistics, as the festival will consolidate By Day, +D, and By Night in the Fira Gran Via in 2026. The dates will be June 18-20 and you can register for presale tickets here https://Sónar.es/en/presale-Sónar-2026.
We expect another stellar lineup and perhaps more art installations and community-driven efforts in the consolidated space next year.
Thanks for reading and hope to see you at Sónar 2026 in Barcelona!
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!