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.

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.

Carnival!

Masked balls in Venice, feathers and sequins in Rio, party beads and frisky college kids at Mardi Gras - in short: a wild, decadent party! The festival might be fully integrated into the fabric of Catholic rituals and celebrations, but it still has a firm hold on its pagan origins - even in its name. During Saturnalia - the Festival of Saturn - in Ancient Rome, people drove through town partying on a boat fastened to a cart, the so-called carrus navalis. This curious mode of transport eventually morphed into the name Carnaval or Carnival. The Catalan name Carnestoltes, on the other hand, is a reference to "forbidden meat" in allusion to the abstinence of Lent that follows the permissiveness of Carnival.

The "anything goes" attitude probably stems from the Saturnalia Festival too, which was infamous for its unrestrained revelry and orgiastic excesses. In other places around the world, debauchery still reigns supreme during the festival, but Carnival in Barcelona is comparatively tame. The city passed one of its first restrictions in the 14th century, apparently designed to dissuade people from riding around town in costume and hurling oranges at bystanders. During the dictatorship, the party was outlawed entirely. With the advent of democracy, it was re-introduced into public life and nowadays the city organises festive events, neighbourhoods hold parades, children's activities, and concerts, and local venues throw costume parties.

It's just a few minutes past nine in the evening, and I'm out with some friends, listening to the noise of the surrounding streets, filled with expectation and more than a little nervous. We hear a blend of songs playing on dozens of loudspeakers nearby, a Brazilian song over here, the lastest pop hit over there, and voices, lots of voices. We are on a street in central Sitges, a small town just a few kilometers south of Barcelona, in Spain, and it's the middle of winter.

We can sense the 50 floats lined up along the narrow streets of Sitges, and, standing around them, the people parading in this year's Sitges Carnival rubbing their hands to keep warm. It's the first parade of the Carnival, la Rua de la Disbauxa, the Parade of Debauchery.

It's cold, and it feels even colder to us since our clothes, if they can be called that, consist solely of bright, tight, sequined shorts made from some kind of elastic, metallic fabric and sleeves and platform boots in the same material. Our chests are bare (except for the ladies, they get funky corsets!). And then there's the hat, perhaps the most outrageous, infamous piece of the whole outfit, very tall and very bright. We cheer each other on, "Wow, it's cold, but look at us, we look spectacular!"

Noir fiction doesn't need leaden skies and rain-slicked streets. In fact, there's something about blue skies and sunshine that brings the darkest and most depraved elements to light. Noir and crime fiction masters from Raymond Chandler to James Ellroy know that a murder in glorious sunlight has a particularly unsettling way of getting under your skin. They used the hard blue skies and piercing glare of Los Angeles in ways that were anything but comforting.

Barcelona is also a city of light and shadow, of Mediterranean splendour and Gothic twilight, picturesque facades and underworlds hidden from view. Barcelona even has it's own Philip Marlowe, a private eye by the name of Pepe Carvalho, who has a weakness for great cuisine and champagne cocktails. We've always been Carvalho fans and even have a walking route on our website, which takes you to some of his favourite haunts. The character, who populated countless books (and subsequent film adaptations), was created by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and gives the top prize at the BCNegra crime fiction festival its name.