Arca shines a spotlight on 15 years of Mira in Barcelona

Arca has been given the 1am slot, and the festival will avoid scheduling any overlapping performances during her set. The Venezuelan artist headlines the opening night of Mira, which celebrates its fifteenth edition this Friday and Saturday at Fira Montjuïc.

Co-director Marc Gomariz isn’t revealing what Alejandra Gershi’s concert will be like: she might present her first album in five years, sing on stage, or perform with dancers and interact with the audience. The uncertainty is part of the appeal of an event that, straddling electronic music and experimental art, has become a fixture of Barcelona’s autumn.

A line-up without the immersive dome

The venue will host nearly thirty live performances, as well as installations and virtual reality experiences. This year, the iconic immersive dome stage won’t be present due to construction work at Fira Montjuïc; the festival is announcing improvements to sound and staging.

Alongside Arca, Helena Hauff, Shygirl, Max Cooper, Nicola Cruz, Tortoise and Machine Girl will perform. Also on the bill are Fennesz & Lillevan, celebrating 25 years of Endless Summer, and Nosaj Thing x Daito Manabe, among others.

Arca’s visit rekindles her connection with Barcelona after she cancelled her appearance at Sónar 2025 due to the festival’s ties with the pro-Israeli fund KKR. Gomariz explains that the artist sets her own rules and will have the entire slot from 1am to perform for the festival audience with no simultaneous concerts.

Fifteen years of loyal audiences

Known to many locals as the autumn Sónar, Mira is not connected to the June macrofestival. In 2025, it drew around 14,000 people over its two days; for this edition, Gomariz estimates attendance at 12,000 and attributes last year’s peak to the presence of Nicolas Jaar, a favourite in Barcelona.

The organisers estimate that 60% of the audience lives in the metropolitan area, while 20% come from abroad. Madrid accounts for 10%, with the rest coming from Valencia, Málaga and Bilbao. On another level of Barcelona’s cultural map are the municipal culture vouchers, a different initiative from the festival’s independent model.

The first edition, in 2011, brought together 800 attendees at Fabra i Coats. There, a wooden structure was built for mapping; the venue hosted Mira for its first decade, before moving to Plaça Espanya. The project was born from several small groups of professionals in design, music and visual arts, with the idea of putting on a bigger-than-usual party and bringing different proposals to the stage.

An independent festival with new generations

With his partner Oriol Pastor, Gomariz runs Mira as a festival independent of investment funds. Both also run Landscapes, a digital arts agency that designs immersive and audiovisual experiences for Cupra, Netflix and arts organisations. According to Gomariz, this parallel work allows them to maintain independence and avoid selling the festival to a large group.

Mira’s activities have extended beyond the main venue, with events at Arts Santa Monica, the CCCB, the Phenomena, the Castell de Montjuic y Casa Batlló. It has also organised two editions of Mira: Turbina at the Tres Chimeneas del Besós and several immersive experiences under the name Mira Mov at the Ideal cinemas.

Gomariz accepts the comparison with Sónar: he says Mira wouldn’t exist without that festival and describes his as a more boutique version compared to the macrofestival format. He also points to the links with Sónar +D, especially since Andrea Faropa joined the programming. Mira opens for longer hours and has fewer conferences.

The average age of the audience has dropped from 42 to 35. Gomariz attributes the change to the work of Pau Cristofol and Elena Pellizzari, who are responsible for booking and each year try to match the line-up to what the audience wants to see.