Opening your eyes early in the morning between the sheets at the hotel makes you realize it’s only two days left until this once-in-a-lifetime experience is finally over. I actually don’t want to use the word ‘finally’, coz there’s nothing u can really complain about. Well, of course there’s been moments when you feel like you need to see your loved ones, but other than that the experience has been incredible.

Who wouldn’t like to meet new people that you usually never would get to know? Not only the super-talented, down-to-earth and helpful teachers of ours, but also the (s)elected people from around the world who somehow made their way into hearts of the Academy jury. I think we all feel lucky to be here and share an unlimited love for music – from Detroit to Bogota to Kraznodar and everywhere else: those amazing late night talks until you pass out. I might be using too many words to express the same feeling over and over again, but it’s all true. We are here and having a f****** good time. Seriously. And I’m not even bragging about the parties and lectures… Even if it’s your third or fifth time applying, just do it. Seriously.

As the final day is getting closer and closer, you’ll see people wandering around the Academy with a timeline ticking in their head like a bomb. “I have to finish this thing with...”, “I did three tracks, but I want to do more...”, “U should rap on it...”, “Is this studio available?” That’s all you hear around. Some of them look and feel tired from being in the studio late last night. And some of them just couldn’t stand the temptation to party hardy yesterday.

During the first lecture with El Guincho aka Pablo Diaz-Reixa you could see that there’s a new fashion in town: shades. You know, for hiding eye bags. I think it’s kind of a way to be polite. And I must admit that I found myself in sleeping mode, as well, at some time during the smooth talking and the sunshine psychedelica-slash-exotica that were played – actually, I need to know more about that Balearic, loungy one that got me up. Eskeveli or something? Well, at least my attention was turned on to El Guincho’s album Alegranza! that is soon to be released on XL Recordings and is already getting praises from the press, often hailed as a Latin version of Animal Collective, but in a good way. And then there was Chloé who made us believe that her well-deserved success is definitely not about her private parts.

As the day goes by, you rarely see the participants around, all glued up with completing the tracks for the final listening session tomorrow. Laying down the beats late at night can be really hard work sometimes, as the ears are going numb from listening to the same loop over and over again. But they seem to be feelin’ it big time in the studios, as there’s some serious ass-shaking and head-nodding going on in studios!

Later on a Red Bull Music Academy all-star line-up got the smoky Harlem Jazz Club walls tumbling and girls screamin’ in the early hours at night. After that, the analogue synthesizer look-a-like club, Moog, had rhythms floating around from all over the world. Techno or no techno, Academy participants Evirgen, Alex Tsiridis, Modul, Deep Blend and surely got those Catalonian and non-Catalonian hands in the air.

By the way, don’t believe a friendly handshake after you have been giving directions to someone in the early morning at the Ramblas. Because of that, you will never see the pictures of a wolf as a rabbit or Andrea as Elvis… that was the blog-o-tastic material for real!

To wrap it up, as Emma Warren would say, I just want to say thank you to the whole Academy team, lecturers and especially the Swedish-Spanish delegation in the food department: it’s been lovely to stay in the lectures with the certainty you’ll get some tasty treats really soon…