Sónar Pro festival preview

As part of our ongoing festival coverage, we thought it was worth giving a special mention to Sónar Pro, the event that runs along with Barcelona's Sónar Festival between 16 - 18 June.

Alongside Sónar 2011's excellent looking line-up of electronic music, Sónar Pro is set to provide a hub for events focused around the music making industry and creative media.

With areas, workshops and seminars open to both the festival-going public and accredited professionals (check the website for details of which require professional accreditation), it strikes us as a pretty decent chance to catch some great dance music and brush up on a few skills while you're at it.

Professional accreditation costs 195€ and includes access to Sónar festival. Check out details of a few of the Sónar Pro events below or photos from last year's event in the gallery. Non-professional tickets for Sónar 2011 cost 155€ and are on sale now.

Demos and tutorials

Sónar Pro's demo and tutorial areas are open to both the public and accredited professionals, providing a space for companies to show off new bits of music tech and DJ gear as well as run tutorials and workshops. The list of companies who participated last year includes the likes of Korg, Yamaha, Ableton, Novation, Stanton and Steinberg.

Music Hack Day

Sónar Pro 2011 hosts Barcelona's second Music Hack Day event. For the uninitiated, hack days have been cropping up all over the world since the first event in 2009, they see a group of hackers and artists gather together to try and create something music-related and entirely new in just 24 hours. Web, mobile, software, hardware, everything goes as long as it relates to music.

Sónar Pro's hack day will take place on June 16 and 17.

Accredited events and services

Those who purchase professional accreditation also get access to the festival's Pro Area, a chance to meet with industry experts, access to a networking area at the Hotel Pulitzer along with a host of other perks.

Pro passes also offer the chance to attend the festival's Digital Music 2.0 Conference, with seminars on practical music-business and industry issues.

For full details on Sónar Pro and accreditation visit the Sónar site.