Sónar, Barcelona’s influential festival of electronic music and visual art, is coming to Hong Kong

Sónar, Barcelona’s influential electronic music and arts festival, will be expanding to Hong Kong next year.

Since it was founded in the Spanish city in 1994, Sónar has grown into the world’s foremost celebration of electronic music. Over the course of three days every June, Sónar Barcelona showcases the world’s leading electronic music acts – previous headliners have included the likes of The Chemical Brothers, the Pet Shop Boys and LCD Soundsystem – and promotes digital culture and visual arts through a range of daytime conferences and workshops.

About 80,000 people attend Sónar Barcelona every year, while tens of thousands more come to the city for the satellite events and showcases that proliferate around the main show. Last year the festival contributed €72 million (HK$630 million) to the city’s economy.

Sonar made its first international foray to London in 2002 and has since travelled to cities such as New York, Seoul, Chicago, Hamburg, Buenos Aires and São Paulo. It will make its debut in Hong Kong on April 1 next year.

Although the first Hong Kong Sónar will only be one day, organisers say a stellar lineup of local, regional and international live artists and DJ talent will be performing on six different stages at night, while the traditional Sonar digital art experiences and installations will take place during the afternoon.

This Hong Kong event is organised by Magnetic Asia, the same people behind the Clockenflap festival and the Your Mum series of live music events.