Sònar is an anual music festival in Barcelona which celebrated its 30th edition this year in June 2023.
Ever since Jorge and I moved to Amsterdam, and ever since our first house party together in the Amsterdam Silo near the docks, in Februray 1996, with the people that would become our Amsterdam family, we started to become interested in techno, house music and all sorts of electronic music. Sònar quickly became a festival to visit, however, we never did…
Now, after all these years, Jorge suggested we´d make use of the fact Dácil was in Madrid the weekend of Sònar (dates are always fixed a year before and don´t usually vary much: mostly on or around my birthday) and he bought us tickets last year as a birthday present. We got the 3-day pass in September last year: for us and Yone.
There´s just no way to describe the feeling of going to a house festival with your son… It´s amazing. And I hope there will be many more parties to come; although our life lines are slowly growing apart. As he grows towards his prime, we are slowly decaying… Anyway, I´m guessing we still have some dancing in us.
We picked Yone up at the airport on Thursday afternoon. Jorge and I travelled by train from Madrid the previous day and checked in in a cute little apartment for 3 in Hospitalet de Llobregat. We spent the evening walking through town and picked up our Sònar passes: bracelet with personalized QR code for entrance and consumption on one of the check points at the Sònar by Day venue near Montjüic.
Sònar is divided into Day and Night and they both take place on different locations. Sònar by Day is downtown and lasts until about 10 pm. Sònar by Night is more remote, busses and public transportation take you there easily. The night sessions last until 7 am.
Us being elderly, we pretty much died after 1 Sònar by Day, home for change of clothes and shower, 1 Sònar by Night, home at 5 am, Barcelona sightseeing next day and another Sònar by Day… Yone´d have gone to the next Night but as we had to check out the next day by 11, we thought it sensible to skip the last night. Surprisingly we weren´t the oldest nor the only ones above 50… Lots of Old Skool generation around. We even spotted other parents with their young adults.
Best compliment on my birthday: During the Aphex Twin show I was dancing next to a girl, around 20 something-ish, dressed in black, pretty, white complexion, tattoo´s… I was wearing my Doc Martens, mini homemade denim skirt and 30 year old favourite house party G-Sus Sindustries t-shirt with open back (it´s a miracle it hasn´t fallen apart). The show was nearly 2 hours. When it finished the girl and I said goodbye and she said in English: when I´m your age, I want to be like you…
Sònar 2024 tickets are on sale…
Yone & Dácil 