It's now so easy and cheap to travel around Europe, that it's quite common to see a real international crowd attending a good festival. This is especially true if the city is Barcelona and the festival is Sonar. With a beautiful day location in the very centre of the old city, in an area that includes the MACBA, Richard Meier's Barcelona contemporary art museum, the CCCB, Barcelona contemporary culture centre, and a massive night location the huge Fira Gran Via that can host some thousands of punters, Sonar, which took place June 14-17, is the event for anyone involved in, and passionate about, advanced electronic music and culture. This year, highlights were the Beastie Boys, Devo, Cornelius, Narod Niki, and Clark, among others.

Then, of course, the more the festival has grown along its 14-year history, the more Sonar’s became also a fashionable event to attend just because every one is becoming so special. But what really matters and makes the difference is the city itself during this time: Its people, architecture, restaurants and clubs, and of course the beaches, are in fact a perfect setting for a short break that can include an urban lifestyle full of cultural and recreation activities, not to mention the pr/networking possibilities with a holiday feeling of relaxing that it can bring. What’s happened at Sonar Festival now? With loads of people, especially those arriving from the most culturally active cities such as London, Berlin, and Paris, who are normally enjoying a lot of music and art at home, they come to Barcelona during this timeframe to attend Sonar, but then spend most of their time strolling, hanging around and partying, in the most diverse locations that Barcelona and its promoters, are likely to offer.

Now all of a sudden, if you attend for Sonar, you also may receive invites or flyers to loads of private parties that start on the Tuesday before the festival and go on until the Monday after the festival including any club, or bar, or even boat. Not to mention that pool terraces and beach chiringuitos are also holding a party every day or every night of the week, often hosting some really trendy producers and DJ’s such as Ellen Allien and all the B-Pitch artists, Michael Mayer and other Kompakt producers, Busy P and his Ed Banger crew who will play for small crowds of very special people but in a normal, cool setting.

After 14 years, the event is not the same Sonar anymore, but has become the happening in Barcelona during that week. The great catalyst of the entire scene is the good old Sonar Festival, which as always, showcases some of the best and weirdest advanced and electronic music and art that the world currently offers to a big crowd of happy people.  

Highlights from Sonar Festival in Barcelona from a fashion sense include:

• Stars
• Summer dresses often in bright colors such as yellow or red
• Leggings which are still in vogue under dresses and long tank tops, but now also worn as sheer tights under short denim jean shorts
• Denim jean short shorts and short-short overalls
• Flats, sandals, and espadrilles
• Colorful Converse sneakers
• Stylized sunglasses to complete an outfit—either square and small and colourful, or oversized
• Belts as key accessories
• European male purses