Credit: Ben Osborne

The thirteenth Sonar kicked into life amidst the customary throng, as old acquaintances greeted each other under Barcelona’s blazing sunshine - although unusually a huge thunderstorm ripped through the site on the opening evening.

This is only the second time Sonar has seen rain, but after the first occasion, which completely stopped play a couple of years ago, Enric and team have learnt their lesson and the down pour this year passes through without incident.

The opening day at Sonar is always dominated by local acts and people you’ve never heard of doing things you’ve never dreamed of. Stand out acts of this year include V Scratch, a male duo who have created a visual programme. As one of them scratches the programme maps out patterns that are manipulated in real time by the scratches.

In the evening Ryuichi Sakamoto is playing the Auditori as part of Sonars celebration of Japan’s contribution to electronic music, but England’s world cup match against Paraguay causes a little timetable confusion, as hordes of Brits squeeze into an Irish pub near Plaza Catalunya and scream them self horse as Roony comes on for the last ten minutes of the game and completely transforms the team.

As Sonar day closes the attention shifts to the official opening party at Razmatazz and The Loft, while the biggest event of the night is taking place off Sonar at the port, where Vice Magazine have rented the roof terrace of the Imax and promised a night of free booze.

They’ve also persuaded Pedro Winter and almost the entire Ed Banger Crew (everyone but Crazy Bald Head) to man the decks. In fact Pedro didn’t need much persuading – it was his stag weekend and he naturally used the opportunity to get all his crew and mates (including Damian Harris aka Midfield General) out for a party. Someone also started a rumour that Daft Punk were playing – plausible, since Pedro manages them, but totally unfounded. Amusingly he made the most of the expectations announcing ‘A Very Special Guest’ before Para One went on to do a mashed up set.

Other spinners include the Ed Banger heavyweights of  Sebastian, Justice, Feadz and Mehdi, while Uffie performs a live PA. It isn’t surprising that half of Barcelona is queuing in vain outside.