Photos – sonar.es
Sónar 2017 has offered 140 musical performances distributed across nine stages (5 at Sónar by Day and 4 at Sónar by Night), and has presented 157 activities and projects at Sónar+D, with more than 400 speakers and exhibitors and 5,500 registered professionals.
The festival has gathered 61,000 people at Sónar by Day, divided among five musical performance stages and 157 Sónar+D activities that have taken place from Wednesday 14 to Saturday, June 17.
This year Sónar by Night has welcomed 62,000 visitors, with both nights experiencing similar attendance numbers: 32,000 people on Friday and 30,000 on Saturday.
Phosphere by Daito Manabe
To these figures we can add the 10,000 attendees expected over the two days of Maker Faire, the creative technologies event for family audiences that is taking place at the Fira Montjuïc’s Pavelló Italià on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 June, within the framework of Sónar and Sónar+D associated activities.
The Sónar Week program of activities being held at the CCCB, Arts Santa Mònica, Mercat de les Flors, Pavelló Mies van der Rohe, the Museum of the Disseny and the Virreina Centre de la Imatge, has seen an exceptional stream of visitors, with attendance figures ranging between 75% to 100% capacity. Sónar Week culminates this Sunday at the Auditori, with the Stargaze and Nico Muhly’s interpretation of “Death Speaks”, by the composer David Lang.
Sónar+D, Sónar’s creativity and technology congress, has seen around 5,500 registered professionals from 57 countries, far exceeding festival expectations. The 30-programmed conferences have seen attendance figures at 80% to 100%. Scheduled networking sessions and workshops have attracted more than 1,000 people, doubling last year’s figures.
The Startup Garden by MIGRATION activities and the Sónar Innovation Challenge, coordinated by the UPF Music Technology Group, have closed this year with a notable increase in the quality and specialization of their presented works.
Music education software from Mimi Hearing Technologies (GR); the Internet of Things applied to Protopixel (BCN) lighting projects; and Melodics (NZ), the technology to optimize listening frequencies and protect composers’ ears, were this year’s three prize winning startups.
The Sónar Innovation Challenge has presented projects developing virtual reality content for passengers on long-haul flights, and technologies capable of transforming sound into movement and touch, for people with hearing disabilities. 30 investment funds from 10 countries, as well as a host of mentors, have followed these projects that will continue their research and business development beyond Sónar.
