Barcelona must surely be the world capital of events that take dance music very seriously indeed. Take Sonar – it’s not just a massive rave in an exhibition centre on the outskirts of town; it’s an “international festival of advanced music and new media art”.
Mira, a festival of “music and visual arts”, which took place in the Catalan capital last week, fits very snugly into this lineage: it is set in Fabra I Coats, a vast old factory turned art space; most acts are accompanied by VJs and there are also artistic installations for revellers to check out as they wait The Haxan Cloak to make their ears bleed.
But if this sounds like a bit of a chore, it’s not. Barcelona is also a global capital of having a lot of fun and the two worlds collide with ease at Mira. There are people with arty moustaches checking out the installations, sure, but they are typically to be found, beer in hand later, making a disgrace of themselves later to Spanish producer Begun.
musicismthought 