- After arriving in Barcelona on Thursday morning and wandering down La Rambles it was apparent firstly due to the various posters and then the massive queue outside one of the main ticket offices that there were a lot of people in town for Sonar's 2005 Advanced Music festival.
The vibe in the city was amazing as you would expect from the Spaniards with their biggest electronic based festivals taking over the city. You could spot Sonar goers all over the place with their passes permanently fixed around their neck.
On arrival we fast discovered how big the space for Sonar by Day is - the CCCB complex. Stumbling around through the various floors of the museum/university grounds which acts as a stunning combination of both modern and historical settings. The place was massive. You walk down a hall or small spiral stair case and be presented with a huge stage, or a Richie Hawtin demo, or some other rather cool type music/techy goings on.
Wandering the various floors, rooms, outdoor spaces and halls taking in the visual artworks and interactive features that were setup was a great experience. A combination of artworks, interesting online creations like ten by ten (10x10) (something all of you should check out - if you haven't seen it previously), audio visual mixing and technology demonstrations was an interesting experience when you needed to get away from the music and out of the sun.
The vibe out in the main Sonar Village stage was incredibly cool, actually it was as good as I've ever witness. Green synthetic grass covered every stretch of floor space and the laid back crowd, with more styled mullets than you could poke a stick at, created a great atmosphere.
The only dampening of the whole spirit was the under estimation of the number of people who would be angling for some of the headlining sets on the Sonar Dome stage. When you take into consideration that the Sonar Village (main stage with huge floor space) was relatively quiet for various parts of each afternoon things could have been slightly adjusted.
Miss Kittin was on the to-do list for many on the Friday afternoon. And as the tent had one massive bottleneck route in things got a bit crazy (to say the least) in early stages. The quest for breathable air was not possible. More and more people - heart set on getting into the tent - pushed into spaces where there physically was no space to consider moving let alone move to allow someone through causing trouble for all involved.
Given a good half an hour and things calmed down slightly, with enough space for to consider moving... and maybe even... dancing! Miss Kittin was in good form, mixing in Kraftwerk's Tour De Force early on (and providing a bit of vocal action over the top) to huge applause. Her complimenting on the crowds T&A was also well approved and the overflowing audience lapped up everything she threw at it.
The battle to get out of the area was like swimming up stream. But as this is my only gripe (and a small one it is indeed) about the whole festival it the overall outcome of things was superb.
Unfortunately at this time a late checking of watch and realization we had to quickly depart to head over to the special Sonar event at L'Auditori with the national Orchestra and a pair of impressive DJ/Producers.