Sonar Festival

Sónar is a multi-day, multi-location festival that brings party-heads the latest in new wave Electronica, House and Techno. It was born in 1994 as The Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art, bringing together some of the top names in the leftfield European Dance scene for a three day event.

In 2013 the Sónar festival celebrated its 20th birthday with four distinct festivals running across four different cities, including Reykjavik, Osaka, Tokyo and its spiritual home of Barcelona. The truest Sónar experience is to be had in this Catalonia capital – where you’ll need to book up a hotel room weeks in advance to make sure you’ve got somewhere to stay for this hugely popular event.

Alongside the range of Advanced Music on offer from this event you can also submerge yourself into a feast for the senses with their SónarCinema attraction, where thought provoking films are usually on the menu. There are a number of other exhibition areas where you can find all kinds of delights including the Sónarama area which focuses on audio-visual creations.

Focusing on cutting-edge electronic culture covering both music, art and film, Sonar provides a great mixture of breakthrough digital art forms and uptempo and intense club nights.

This year I’ve participated for the first time at the festival in the night of June 20 and I have been fully satisfied of everything, from the organization (four stages in four different sheds, two with an open roof) to the guests. I appreciated artists as the chemical brothers with their fantastic visual effects, Flyng lotus, Siriusmodeselektor, jamie jones and many others.

A suggestion, if you love the music and the people you can’t loose this festival!

PDA in Barcelona

Coming into my third week in Barcelona, it is safe to say I love this city. The culture, the weather, and the people are to name but a few of the great things in this wonderful place. What I did not expect though, is the love that couples in this city show to one another. Yes, I´m talking about PDA (or public displays of affection).  

I am from the UK, generally seen as a liberal and open-minded place. However, when it comes to PDA, we British turn our noses up at the very sight of it. In the words of Hannah Bett from The Telegraph, “We are British, for the love of God. We do not do this. PDAs are for children and foreigners - the emotionally incontinent, and / or people with something to prove.” While people might hold hands and occasionally kiss, it is nothing like the scenes that are displayed here in Spain.

So it came as a shock to me when sitting on the beach, walking around day or night or even sitting in a restaurant, that Barcelonians have no problems getting lost in each other`s… well, mouths. In some ways, I see it as refreshing that people don´t care what others think of them. However, there is a line, and at some point I can´t help but think ´Oh, get a room!`. Some nations in the Middle East and areas of Asia frown upon PDA greatly - hand-holding, hugging and kissing are illegal in some countries, with huge penalties for doing so. But this is the other end of the extreme, where people are forced to restrain themselves and will face prison, or worse, if they do not. 

A blog post by a North American speaks about her experience in another Hispanic nation, saying: “The first time I visited Argentina, I was shocked to see teenagers lying under trees in public parks, just sucking face like there was no tomorrow.” One may assume that because of the strict Catholicism in these nations that couples would be more modest in displaying their affection, but after being here for just two weeks, I can say that this is not the case.

I don´t hate it, it´s just not what I´m used to, being from the UK. And hey, if they´re happy, then who am I to judge? I guess it´s just one of those things we´ll adjust to in the process of becoming Barcelonian.

Betts, H. (2014). Kissing in public? No thanks, we're British. Available:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/relationship-advice-and-romance/11251250/Kissing-in-public-No-thanks-were-British.html. Last accessed 23/06/2015.

Speaking Latino. (2014). Dating Latinos It’s Different: PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION (PDA). Available: http://www.speakinglatino.com/dating-latinos-its-different-public-displays-of-affection-pda/.Last accessed 23/06/2015. 

The Other Face of Barcelona

Hello BecomingBarcelonian reader, today i am writing this text a little bit depressed. Because something bad happened last night.

There is a problem which exists in Barcelona, thieves. They are incredibly professional and dangerous and the most of them are not Spanish, they are immigrants. 

Last night me and my two friends sit in front of a closed shop and we were talking, laughing around 11pm. It was a really big street close to Plaza Catalunya. I am saying that because I want you to know it was not a backstreet or small Barri Gotic place, it was downtown. Then a man closed to us and sit in front of me my friend. He was saying something but we did not get it. Then he put a paper between me and my friend. A friend of mine hold the man´s arm and I sad police. The man took the paper and go away from us with his friend. We thought like he scared. But after 5 minutes we realized actually he did not scared at all. He stole my friends phone with the paper. Because he put the paper on the phone. Then he took the paper with the phone and we did not realize at all. He was so professional. Maybe we are so lucky to not realizing it. Because maybe he has knife or gun or something else and he could have hurt one of us. And it would be the worst scenario. After realized the phone is gone I felt nothing. Because my friends came to Barcelona on this date for me. And I wanted to sit in front of that shop. And this happened. I felt myself so quilty. And I just looked to the road without any sense. My friend who stolen her phone was calm. But i could not stay calm.

All my life I thought like these kind of things does not happen to me or to my relatives. To seen all the incident alive, effected me bad. I still feel so sad. Because it was the last  hours for my friends in Barcelona, they had a flight to Madrid 3 hours later and it has happened. Finally, I wanted to say to you all this writing, please be careful and if you are careful but this happened be calm and think like that “It has meant to be and it has done, there is nothing to do, lets move on.” There is always a possibility for come true this kind of situations in every country, but you have to be more careful in Barcelona if you do not want to have a bad memory. Have a nice day.