From Thundercat to VR, how Sónar Hong Kong is leading the way for electronic music festivals

There are a lot of electronic music festivals these days – but none are quite like Sónar. The third Hong Kong edition of the festival will feature 35 musical acts that run the gamut from the radio-friendly to the mind-bendingly experimental.

The April 13 festival, at Hong Kong Science Park, will cover a broad palette of electronic genres, from techno and hip hop to electronica and future pop, and will include the likes of John Talabot, Bonobo, Thundercat, AlunaGeorge, Anja Schneider and Art Department.

The accompanying Sónar+D creative technology event will see an assemblage of performances, art works, talks and workshops take place that can be anything from immediately accessible to bafflingly conceptual.

Sónar Hong Kong manages, unlike some other brand-name electronic music festivals that have gone international, to recreate the vibe of the original – which, in Sónar’s case, is a monumental celebration of electronic music and its culture that takes place in Barcelona every July.

Founded in 1994 by journalist Ricard Robles and musicians and artists Enric Palau and Sergio Caballero, it started as a modest affair, attracting about 6,000 people, but now attracts more than 120,000 through the gates, and it has satellite events in more than 50 other cities.

The Hong Kong iteration began in 2017, headlined by Dave Clarke, DJ Shadow and Gilles Peterson, while last year’s event featured Squarepusher, Laurent Garnier and The Black Madonna.