In May, the organizers of Sónar as well as the festival’s offshoot symposium, Sónar+D, announced that the COVID-19 pandemic would prevent both events from going on as planned in 2020. The latter gathering will instead take place in a limited capacity at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) on September 18th and 19th with a two-channel live stream of performances, talks and workshops.
Sónar+D CCCB will unite creative organizations like TodaysArt from The Hague, Reworks from Thessaloniki, and Unsound from Krakow under one roof. Max Cooper, Arca and Laurel Halo are among the electronic music figureheads who will perform, present or both, in addition to a panel on COVID-19 and clubbing with Richie Hawtin and Holly Herndon as speakers.
Sónar+D Revisited
The brainchild of music journalist Ricard Robles and artists Enric Palau and Sergio Caballero, Sónar debuted in 1994. 2013 marked the launch of the Sonar+D, a conference that explores the intersection between art, technology and business.
Björk, Brian Eno and Ryuichi Sakamoto are among the music figureheads to participate in previous editions of the event. Joining them are key staff of companies like Spotify, Vimeo and Microsoft VR in addition to institutions like NASA, the Royal College of Art and the ALMA Astronomical Observatory.
More information on the 2020 event is available on the Sónar+D CCCB website.