July 23, 2026 |
Barcelona’s festival circuit is one to be envied. Primavera Sound – a two-day behemoth that has previously billed Charli XCX, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter all on one weekend – started in the Spanish city and now hosts iterations in Porto, Buenos Aires and São Paulo. Sónar, a June-bound celebration of music and innovation that clocks in lineups of over 100 artists, has been pulsing through the city every summer since 1994. Sufficiently covered for larger, more mainstream acts and events, there’s a new addition to Barcelona’s stacked summer schedule that gives a more intimate platform to the underground.
Soundit, which executed its second edition on the leafy expanse of Parc Nou on July 17 and 18, is the spot where the shadowy corners of Barcelona’s music scene can come into the light. Physically bringing punters outside the city – approximately a 20-minute drive out, depending on where you are – its intersectional lineup explores the far flung corners of electronic production, encouraging ticket holders to discover sounds and artists not in their usual rotation. The space it occupies in Parc Nou is fitting – small enough to do circuits around to discover what takes your fancy, but large enough to have space away from the music to grab a bite or a sit down.
The set up encourages exploration, with each stage feeding into another. There’s enough space between each to make sure the sounds don’t blend, but so your curiosity can be pricked by the strobing lights and bobbing limbs just a few meters away at a different spot. When one act has satisfied, there’s another just a mere hop, skip and jump away to carry you further into the early hours. Here are five of our favourite sets plucked from Soundit’s Saturday lineup.
Moxie b2b Jennifer Loveless
It was the meeting of two powerhouse women Saturday evening at the El.Lipse stage. Spinning two hours of house heaters sprinkled with disco samples, Moxie and Jennifer Loveless‘ display of deep digging and technical ability had the crowd hooked from the first note. Hitting that sweet spot at 8:30PM, where you know the rest of the night lies ahead, it got people up and ready for hours spent on the dancefloor.
Mala
Heralded as one of contemporary dubstep’s most influential figures, Mala’s set at the intimate, scarlet-lit Eco stage from 10:00PM onwards proved why. Playing out samples of British rap and grime over a bass-heavy textures, Mala interspersed his two-hour stint with sounds that wobbled out of the soundsystem with an enchanting might that had his crowd lurching in unison, spellbound by his wizardry.
Mala
John Talabot
John Talabot’s four-hour set between 10:00PM to 2:00AM marked the homecoming of a Barcelona legend. Stationed at Halo, perhaps the largest of the festival’s four stages, pulses of technicolour light bounced behind Talabot as he threaded clubby techno tracks together with an ease honed by years in the business. It was a master at work emboldened on his home soil.
Jump Source
Jump Source, a Montréal-based DJ and production duo composed of Priori and Patrick Holland, wasn’t an artist I was familiar with before heading to Soundit – but that’s the beauty of having such an intimate site. On a trip to the bar, we stopped off at El.Lipse and caught the start of the pair’s live set, which saw reverberating vocals layered atop
CCL b2b Verraco
What a way to finish a festival. Clashing on the timetable with the legendary Honey Dijon to close and still pulling a crowd who stays is no small feat, but Berlin-based CCL and their deck-sharing partner for the night, the Colombian-born and bred Verraco did just that. Melding experimental techno and forward-thinking dance music from across the globe with sharp precision, it saw Soundit 2026 out with a percussive explosion – no survivors.
John Talabot
Photography by Laura Dominguez and Alba Rupérez.
