Primavera Sound is the rockin' kick-off to the summer festival season, turning the Parc del Forum into an enormous playground for music lovers. Stripped bare, the Parc del Forum looks a bit like an abandoned set for a 60s sci-fi movie, but it makes for a surprisingly good festival venue. Lots of space, fresh air, urban concrete and great views of the sea. When I saw Black Mountain play a few years back, the setting sun turning the sea golden, reeds swaying in the wind, the place even took on a dreamy, summery vibe. Goes to show that it's really the music that makes the setting and Primavera Sound has plenty to offer in that regard.

The countdown to Sónar 2012 - the International Advanced Music & New Media Art Festival of Barcelona - is kicking off real early this year! Barcelona's most famous festival doesn't open its doors til June, but early line-up announcements already have the town and internet buzzing.

Although it rarely strays too far from its electronic roots, the festival has long gone eclectic and this year is no exception. Amongst the headliners are The Roots, billed as "probably the best hip-hop band in the world, plus the always popular disco-dance-pop duo Hot Chip, Brighton's eternal and quintessential raver Fatboy Slim (whose live shows are legendary), and one of the most interesting electronic music artists of all time, Squarepusher.

Our first morning in town, I wake up my girlfriend and lead her onto the balcony of our holiday apartment in Barcelona. I want her to see the view of the big interior courtyard, the size of a city block. So calm and quiet, it's hard to imagine that we're not just right in the middle of the city, but a stone's throw away from Las Ramblas.

“I can hear birds,” she says sleepily.

I feel totally validated. She'd wanted to stay uptown, someplace residential and remote, but I'd insisted on downtown. I like walking out the front door and being in the middle of all the action. I like exploring a city on foot rather than spending lots of time on the subway. She said it would be awfully loud and she wouldn't get any sleep. Well, she slept like a log and the first thing she heard this morning? Birds.

Outside our front door, it's a totally different story. The Ramblas are a mad, noisy, colourful place. I like the mixture of people – all kinds of people – and the unpredictable nature of this long, leafy, rambling avenue. My girlfriend Anna and I go to have breakfast at La Boqueria, a bright, lively food market up the Ramblas from our apartment, and the waiter explains that ramblas aren't one specific avenue, but a type of avenue. There are many ramblas: the Rambla del Raval, Rambla del Poblenou, Rambla de Catalunya. Promenades where people traditionally go for a leisurely stroll, a place to socialise and enjoy the afternoon at a café. The most famous of them all are Las Ramblas, a string of several little ramblas, each with its own name, leading from Plaça Catalunya to the sea.

Check out our Barcelona Apartments Recommendations for the area around Las Ramblas, the city's most famous promenade: Ref. 5, Ref. 297, Ref. 298, Ref. 155 and Ref. 57

The biggest music event this month is no doubt the Primavera Sound Festival, followed closely by the Boss' visit to our fair city. Bruce Springsteen has a loyal following in Barcelona and his concerts are always cause for much excitement. After making music for this many years and reaching the dizziest heights of fame, there's really not much left to write about Springsteen except to say he's giving local audiences two nights of dyed-in-the-wool rock at the Palau Olímpic on May 17 and 18.

If mega music festivals and mega stadium shows aren't your thing, there's still plenty of music to get excited about. My three picks of the month: The Magnetic Fields, Eleanor Friedberger and Yacht.

Eight artists, one bathroom, lots of offbeat antics. Soap the Show hinges on a fun premise: what happens when circus and stage performers get to play around in a tub? According to producer Gregg Parks, the creators of the show chose the bathroom as the setting of their circus cabaret, because it is an intimate space where people let their imagination run free and don't mind doing silly things. After all, who doesn't like singing in the shower?

Even if the acoustics in our bathrooms are fantastic, we probably don't sound as great as soprano Patricia Holtzmann, who does the singing in Soap. Most of the other performances in the show are much too dangerous for any of us to try at home (unless you happen to be a trained circus performer). We might fantasize about vaulting across our tub in an exhilerating back flip, but this is best left to the professionals.

The beginning of May turns the entire city of Barcelona into a poetic celebration. Now in its 28th year, the Barcelona Poesía festival is doubtlessly one of the city's most enduring cultural events, a venerable institution that year after year welcomes some of the finest Catalan, Spanish and international poets and artists to the local stage. The festival's prestige is reflected in its opening gala, held at the Palau de la Música, a venue so venerable, it was named a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. But if you're thinking this is synonymous with stuffy readings by writers in tweed jackets behind lecterns or seated in comfy armchairs, think again.