Even if you've been going to Sónar for years, it's likely that Fira Gran Via, Sónar By Night's long-time venue, is still an overwhelming spectacle. This vast exhibition space had 69,000 people pass through it in 2016, and during some of the headline performances at the main SonarClub stage it felt as though half of them were in that room alone. As we noted in our Five Key Performances piece on the festival, Sónar's size belies its commitment to cutting edge electronic music. This year we had the pleasure of hosting the SonarLab stage on the Friday night, and were able to bring together a lineup that challenged ingrained ideas of what works on enormous stages—an approach Sónar has come to define. This meant that the regional club styles of Noaipre sat on a bill alongside the classic house sounds of Kerri Chandler; Ben UFO and Helena Hauff's charcoal acid workouts were offset by Soichi Terada's sunshine house; and the experimentally-inclined Powell and Lorenzo Senni were followed by techno and electro from the veteran Hague DJ Intergalactic Gary. We also had DVS1 and Rødhåd, two of the world's biggest techno DJs, sharing the decks.

As you might imagine, this was a big deal for us, and so we decided to share a selection of the mixes and photos from the night, an event that will stick long in our memory.

Mixes

Ben UFO b2b Helena Hauff
Any back-to-back DJ set is an experiment of sorts, something that's particularly true when the DJs are playing together for the first time. Their core styles might be quite different, but Ben UFO and Helena Hauff share a sense of adventure and versatility that made this particular experiment yield fantastic results. Our recording highlights the first 83 minutes of their two-hour set.

Intergalactic Gary
Intergalactic Gary is exactly the sort of DJ we like to have play when we work with festivals—an under-appreciated selector with the skills and experience to rock a big room. His 11:30 PM set got the party simmering with a characteristic blend of house, acid and Italo.

Noaipre
In the cavalier spirit of Sónar, we had Noaipre open a lineup that was rooted in house and techno by playing anything but. The Valencia artist instead connected the dots between regional and emerging club styles in a way that embodied a very modern approach to the art of DJing.

Kerri Chandler
Kerri Chandler dropping "You're In My System" as his final track was a Sónar 2016 highlight for us, but this was hardly a retrospective performance. Chandler's focused on playing new music that shared the spirit of his revered back catalogue. He also treated us to some live keys, which always slips down nicely.