Sonar 2016 consolidates with the support of 115.500 visitors its commitment as a 'cultural laboratory'

The twenty-third edition of this musical competition, audiovisual and experimental also incorporates Hong Kong and Istanbul to its international headquarters, and Sónar+D consolidates its congress format, bringing together more than 4.700 professionals of 2.600 companies and entities in cultural environments, technology, science, education and business from sixty countries.

Exhibition, experimentation in formats and content, technology, business and outreach, in perfect harmony with a diverse musical proposal make up the structure of Sonar, that in its recent edition 2016 in Barcelona, the twenty-third in its history, has gathered 115.500 visitors, de los que un 53% corresponds to an international audience and a 47% national.

This audience has not only wanted to see the premieres of James Blake's great shows, Anohni, Jean-Michel Jarre, Flume o richie hawtin, among many others, but to be part of the congressional format of Sonar+D, which has been consolidated with the participation of more than 4.700 professionals of 2.600 companies and entities in the world of culture, technology, science, education and business from sixty countries (more information at Digital AV Magazine).

In the musical section, the festival has presented a total of 130 performances, exhibiting a very wide sound spectrum, from the most experimental approaches to cutting-edge dance music, with stops in global and conceptual dance, current trends in urban music, the new minimalism and even the most recent forms of classical symphonism, and around issues such as climate change, border policy, the transgender struggle or mass surveillance.

For your part, Sónar+D has greatly exceeded the organizers' participation expectations, with incessant traffic at the MarketLab stands and in the Realities+D area, dedicated to virtual reality. Specifically, The scheduled conferences and workshops have had about 3.800 assistants and 584 scheduled meetings between experts, creators, entrepreneurs and investors in the areas of networking.

Startup Garden by Ricoh, the expanded Sónar+D business area, brought together a total of thirty startups and 46 investment funds, national and international accelerators and institutions from twelve countries. The Japanese Kagura has been the winner of the third edition of the Startup Competition, with a musical instrument that transforms body movement and gestures into music.

In the MarketLab area, musical technology projects and those that promote and mix science with social entrepreneurship have stood out this year., as well as those of a participatory nature that arise in Barcelona and that will continue throughout the coming months in the Canòdrom project accelerator and incubator.

Over the next few months, Sónar+D will display part of the content programmed during this edition on its website to become a platform for the progress of the projects and ideas that emerged during the event., as well as the most relevant initiatives and calls for digital culture, with special attention to local businesses.

International projection

Another novelty is that the festival has added to its international calendar for the season 2016-2017 two new cities: Sonar Istanbul (which will take place 24 al 25 March 2017) and Sonar Hong Kong (1 April). Sonar will continue in February in Reykjavík and in March will return to Stockholm in March; besides, Soon the organization will announce the final dates of its Latin American editions in Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires and Bogotá.

Sónar will also present and coordinate content at the TodaysArt festivals (of the 22 al 25 September this year in The Hague, Netherlands) EDOMNNIA (of the 26 al 28 October in Tromso, Norway) as part of We Are Europe, the creative program of the European Union.

The celebration of Sónar Barcelona 2017 has been set from 15 al 17 June at Fira Montjuïc and Gran Via.