LISB-ON #Jardim Sonoro

LISB-ON #Jardim Sonoro is a house, techno and soul festival in Lisbon, Portugal. The first edition ran on 6 and 7 September 2014 in Parque Eduardo VII. It is produced by Jardim Sonoro, Lda., incorporated on 6 May 2014. João Maria appears as one of the organisers. It is not NOS Alive, not Rock in Rio Lisboa and not Super Bock Super Rock. It is not another festival that in 2022 used only the subtitle Jardim Sonoro: it is the same meeting, with the same producer. It is daytime dance music in a garden of the capital.

The start was made in partnership with Lisbon City Council and Turismo de Lisboa. The idea was to occupy the landmark park in the afternoon — the slope toward Marquês de Pombal that looks over the centre — and not wait for the club. From one to eleven, or from two to midnight in later editions. A sonic picnic, the reports said. The first Saturday rained. Sunday came out sunny. Roy Ayers played funk and soul. Moodymann and Carl Craig brought Detroit and house. Dâm-Funk and Moullinex played live. Rodrigo Leão opened A Vida Secreta das Máquinas, more electronic than his usual catalogue, with trombone, cello and synthesisers. Sensible Soccers and Mirror People held the Portuguese line.

Six editions stayed in Eduardo VII, from 2014 to 2019. The bill widened without leaving the garden. Nicolas Jaar, Nina Kraviz, Todd Terje and Jazzanova in 2015. Jungle, DJ Harvey, Tale of Us and Marcos Valle in 2016. In 2017 Time Out still placed it in the park: Sven Väth, Tony Allen, Kiasmos, a second stage, an MB WAY wristband. João Maria said then that the meeting marked Lisboetas coming back after the holidays. St. Germain, Larry Heard, Kerri Chandler and Rødhåd in 2018. Róisín Murphy, Dixon and Solomun in 2019. The soul and jazz of the first date did not vanish. Daytime techno sat beside them.

The pandemic cut 2020 and 2021. In 2022 the festival returned with Jardim Sonoro on posters and in reports — the subtitle made into a title — and changed ground. Jardim Keil do Amaral, in Parque Florestal de Monsanto, replaced Eduardo VII. Three stages, more hours, more space, free transfers from the central park. Jeff Mills, WhoMadeWho, DVS1, Sam The Kid and Todd Terje took that wood. The official site still signs LISB-ON #Jardim Sonoro. Anyone looking for a new 2022 festival finds the same producer and the same crowd they call jardineiros.

Monsanto is not an avenue park. It is the lung to the west, with a lake, shade and longer walks. Garden Stage, Discover Carlsberg Stage and Lake Stage — plus a fourth stage in later editions — ask you to move. You arrive by car, by transit or by the link that left Eduardo VII. There is no weekend campsite of the field kind. There is a city hotel and a return to the wood the next day. In the afternoon soul and house fit under the trees. At night techno tightens by the lake. The crowd, the organisation says, is twenty to forty-five, mostly national, with visitors from dozens of countries.

The namesakes have to be cut. NOS Alive is rock and indie at another scale, on another site. Rock in Rio Lisboa is a city franchise. Super Bock Super Rock is another brand. A Jardim Sonoro of 2022 is not a different festival: it is LISB-ON changing park and lettering. Mixing the names wipes Eduardo VII, wipes the rain of 2014 and wipes Roy Ayers. The producer, Jardim Sonoro, Lda., on Terreiro do Paço, explains the continuity better than the hashtag.

The experience is urban and green at once. In Eduardo VII you heard the city at the edge of the site. In Monsanto you hear the wood. September heat in Lisbon asks for water and shade. The rain of the first Saturday in 2014 shows that the garden is not a covered club. Times get reshuffled. People find a tree. They go back to the stage when it clears. In 2017 the second stage kept everything from passing through one pit. In Monsanto the lake splits the flow. Anyone coming only for Jeff Mills or for Sister Sledge — the latter in 2023 — may not cross paths. The site allows that.

House holds the day. Techno holds the night and the Detroit or Frankfurt legends. Soul — Ayers, Ten City, Sister Sledge, Dâm-Funk’s funk — holds the origin. Purple Disco Machine, Folamour, Honey Dijon and Adriatique in the 2023 and 2024 editions explain the cross: disco and club in the same garden. Sam The Kid in 2022 reminds you that Lisbon hip hop fits without changing the festival’s name. The catalogue does not ask for three nights of one kick. It asks for a garden weekend.

LISB-ON #Jardim Sonoro reads as Lisbon’s daytime festival that began in Eduardo VII in 2014 and took root in Monsanto in 2022. Jardim Sonoro, Lda. explains who produces it. House, techno and soul explain what plays. NOS Alive explains what it is not. The lake at Keil do Amaral explains the present scale. The central park explains the first gesture. You do not need another brand to place it. Lisbon, a garden and a 2014 producer will do.