Article by Marzia Picciano
Sitting on the return flight from Barcelona to Milan at lunchtime, after what could be classified without too many mincing words as a “straight”, the only way in my opinion to conclude a three-day (official) event like the one on Primavera SoundI begin to visualize, as a whole, what was the 24th edition of the event which defined not so much a standard as a paradigm in the world of festivals.
We are talking about an event today that is increasingly viscerally linked to its territory of birth, Created In Barcelonadespite the international vocation, and to specific values: inclusion and 'no to all conflicts, no uncertainty in condemning, so much so as to bring on two stages Aarab Barghouti (son of Palestinian activist and son of political leader Marwan Barghouticurrently in prison in Israel). Values that are now physical, tattooed on the seaside asphalt of the Parc del Forum, a way of being and actively experiencing music – obviously, with all the contradictions and difficulties that these modern times bring, in Spain, in the world, and in all of us.
One year from what will be the quarter-century edition, in a historical moment in which remembering birthdays and anniversaries is easy, but renewing their spirit is quite difficult, the Primavera Sound it also manages, indeed perhaps more so in 2026, to maintain its figure – while evolving, because if you stand still you die – with an eye to what it has done in the past which has allowed it to be where it is today, despite the complexities and, let's face it, bad falls experienced in recent days.
A returning lineup
Just go back to months ago, to the release of the line up, which convinced me to buy the ticket. After the pop sympathy operation of 2025, this year's was a return to the parent company of the '90s-00s, spiritually led by The Cure, Massive Attack And My Bloody Valentine (and yes, even them Slowdive), balanced with the most recent disposition of international pop. Also the proposals of the other stages, especially of Port, they seemed to find that natural tendency towards punk distortion that characterizes the festival.
To put it very briefly: despite everything and everyone, Primavera Sound remains a certainty for many.
One of the secrets of this ability that, as well Aleix Ibers, Mar Campos And Alfonso Lanza (Respectively Director of Communications, Deputy Director and Co-director of the festival) at the press conference on Saturday seemed to suggest, it is an increasingly critical challenge to manage over time, it lies in the partnership that Primavera manages to create between artist and fans. The former is first and foremost a fan of the festival, and comes back regularly – and no Olivia my dear, it's not that Primavera is fantastic just because it overlooks the sea. He says it Rachel Brown of the Water From Your Eyes (among my favorite performances, by the way), repeats it Oliver Sim in what was one of the live shows and reunions of the The XXmore beautiful and well-kept than the entire festival: the artists themselves are above all users of the festival, in the sense that if they don't play there, they go, they are among the masses who move from one stage to another in the – impossible – attempt to fit in 150 concerts literally at the same time as each other. Because yes, it's true, many things are done at festivals, but with an offer like this, you go to Primavera first and foremost to listen to and see music.
The perfect storm
So how can we not understand the legitimate (I feel like saying, for multiple reasons) hysteria over the first day being “paid for” and actually skipped – because if you weren't like me fighting against delicious food poisoning, perhaps you will have had the joy of enjoying not only the opening day with Wet Leg, Guitarrica hey Geesethe latter being the real object of love for Primavera this year, with three live performances, one of which acoustic on the piano Cameron Winter in 48 consecutive hours (guys, we're bordering on new high school crush stalking). And perhaps you will have been in one of the rooms of that spectacular event that should be a lesson, Spring In La Ciutat. In short, you weren't short of live shows.
An important blow: skipped i Massive Attack (on their umpteenth attempt to return), Mac De Marco, Doja Cat And Bad Gyal in what seemed like the perfect storm. In the press conference it is admitted: everything was done, everything was attempted, there was no correct assessment of the risk of the forecasts, and the protocol was triggered and a leak of people and news that was not exactly correct or timely was generated (after all, when you have personalities like Doja Cat on stage you must know that she probably does the communication first with her fans).
Communication was not managed well, let's take it as a lesson, they say. There was a lack of complete information on 9000 workers. They are mistakes, they happen even to the best, but they cost a day of the festival. We will remember Winter and band surviving one Trinidad of very wet pieces, which would have even continued if the technicians hadn't intervened and literally disconnected the cables from the stage while one of the screens came down.
(As a Geese neophyte, however, I have to say: the pathos crescendos in the rain above Au Paix De Cocaine I appreciated it very much. It was the climax of my first day, for goodness sake, but they weren't the headliners anyway).
You have to call things by their proper names: bad luck, of course, and in any case a bad mistake. And although the ticket buyers for Thursday only (20% of 70 thousand total paying people) will receive a very fair refund, for a festival that claims 62% of international fans out of 287 thousand total attendances (with full passes sold out) we must also consider the damage of those who have planned holidays over three days of the festival and see their longed-for artist cancelled, not an insignificant expense – despite the fact that the entire package, in terms of caliber and names, remains one of the cheapest in circulation.
We need to consider these aspects and the impacts of climate change (because that is what it is about) on outdoor festivals. In Italy, in small and medium-sized businesses it has undermined the economic stability of the events themselves. You have to keep this in mind in Spain, after blackouts and DANA, when you even have closing day Pedro Sanchez to shake hands with Damon Albarn and to see the investment machine (because in the end this is the festival, and there is nothing wrong about it: we can and must eat on music, fairly, but at least we wouldn't see certain market distortions) with at least around 350 million euros of economic impact per edition (estimates to be confirmed). You must do this especially if you are aiming to export the model outside, an operation that has not always been successful (we will see the results of the sessions scheduled for the end of the year in Brazil and Argentina). Safety always firstand with a little vision.
The Cure for every disease
On the second day we had already returned to the desired mood of the festival. The return to normality was dictated by the live of The Curethe real headliner of the edition, who, as part of their international tour, enchant the Estrella Damm area for two hours and more. Robert SmithIn the end, he is in better shape than many thirty-year-olds brutalized by life and the gym. Apart from the bikini Addison Rae, Primavera finally brings out, after the abrupt interruption of the day before, the real point of its edition: the reverberating chords between millennials and shoegaze, the intrinsic melancholy that those who created or follow this event for years carry in their hearts, the inconsolable joy of pruning a very intense, brilliant gray in their hearts. It's them, with the My Bloody Valentine hey The XX to define the lowest common denominator of the festival: alternative rock has its foundations here, in these agreements, and in these evolutions (electronic, mainly). The nostalgia of those who left us an important slice of their life in the 90s, dragging themselves languidly into the 2000s, and who have an important Anglo-Saxon imprinting from across the Channel: and here I also include Dev Hynes And Men I Trustbecause ideally on the same level (and come on, Addison too, because what's more nostalgic than Britney's pop?).
So of course, the surprise is good with a super star now on the launch pad like Olivia Rodrigo, blessed by a lucky star and also by Robert Smith in a duet on a dedicated feature (although my sense of alienation continues when I think of Smith finding himself in front of an audience that is in many ways similar to a bad copy of a Euphoria party, says my friend), but we know that it doesn't serve to give prestige to a festival that has attracted almost three hundred thousand people with a very specific line up.
There were other levers, such as the absolutism scratched to the bottom that certain American scenarios recount in the tormented songs of Adrianne Lenker And Big Thiefor the phenomenon Ethel Cain (we talked about it during the live show in Milan). They are also the Cali vibes pop by TV Girlthe dance and slightly dark introspection of Oklouand the rap, DJ and funk ramblings of Little Simz – I would say true queen of the third day – or the impetuosity of the political activism of Kneecapwho at 3 am found no uncertainty in the audience but only mosh pits and people extremely eager to be overwhelmed by so much musical violence, especially at the arrival of their Irish brother Grian Chatten. Let's add the lightning work of Dijon and the festival's IDLES share, matched in punk violence only by Lambrini Girls, i.e. i Viagra Boys. Even though it's their third live, I'm still hallucinated, this time by the closing of Research Chemicals.
Along the same lines are the boiler room sessions Cupra Pulse or of Plenitudewhere a whole other festival was going on (among the few to resist, among other things, the whirlwind with Well Ufo, Fcukers AndOvermono), not to mention the Saturday session with a surprise guest Balawan, Four Tet and Arkand obviously the closing of a good evening with Peggy Gou and a dance troupe activated precisely at half past four in the morning. It is in this multitude, in the moshes of Sophs, Knooked Loose, Texas Is Reason and in the gemmed intimacy of the live showsRockdeluxe Auditoriums, which lies the soul of Primavera.
The Gorillaz show within the show
Separate chapter for i Gorillaz. Necessary premise: the writer is a lover of Damon's genius and his creative hyperactivity. On the other hand, that of Gorillaz it is Albarn's way of narrating reality with irony and ferocious pop poetics, hands free because we are in an artistic body that is not even physically a single man, or rather yes, but can extend in a Pirandellian style to infinity (thanks to the graphics of Jamie Hewlett). So TheMountain arrives as a choral act of exaggerated magnitude, not only on the album, but in the live performance. Albarn is a conductor with the same verve (and outfit) as a sly Steve Zissou who puts together a concert not on the banality of war, but of evil, and how it pervades our everyday life, interspersing the courtly renditions of the flute Ajay Prasanna with the very current zero-zero of 19-2000 And Feel Good Inc., the exaggerated twerk of Moonchild Sanelly, Little Simz hooded returning to the stage after the afternoon's performance and a flock of other guests making it a mini festival in itself.
Primavera Sound, with its park proudly presented to its fans, could only be the place of excellence for such a performance. And this is what, perfect storms aside, makes the festival not so much a hit-and-run experience, but an object of worship, or more simply a place to return to (hoping that inflation doesn't make it impossible, especially for its 25 years). We just have to wait until next June 5th to start all over again.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
