Finally we have returned to our desk after attending arguably the hottest festival on the planet right now – Primavera Sound Barcelona 2023.
Before we even talk about the more than 250 artists that performed during the past week here in the Catalan capital, we really need to talk about the festival itself, which is what truly makes it such a unique experience. So unique in fact that this year one of the biggest differences was noticing how international the audience was. European friends have always come and vistied us for the festival but this year was the first we noticed how many Americans have started to come over to make Primavera Sound Barcelona their summer holiday.
Located down by the sea, it is a really much sexier proposition than being in the muddy English countryside or say, the middle of the desert. Plus even though it’s by the sea, it’s still so easily accessible that you can foget about torturous walks home at 6am. Barcleona even plays a unique part in the festival because in the build up to the three day headline event, the festivals hosts small, intimate shows with a selection of the some of the biggest, and soon-to-be big acts. We are still recovering from getting to witness LGBT legends Pet Shop Boys begin our Pride month on Sunday in the 400-capacity Sala Apolo, courtesy of Primavera Sound. That was actually Neil & Chris’ second show this week after headlining the Inaugural Day last Wednesday. A day which is open free to the public, yes, 100% gratis, baby.
But this year also saw a total reallocation of the stage layout. One thing we have always hated about previous years was that Dance acts would play on stages that were a ten-fifteen minute walk from the main area – although the spotlit, metallic, fuming power plant was always the perfect backdrop. But this year they had pulled all the Electronic acts back over into Parc Del Forum which meant no vibes were killed when crossing the bridge. A testament to just how popular/mainstream electronic music has now become, and also the savvy of the organisers, but this year it was just a quick bounce from Rosalía‘s set to seeing Jayda G close out the festival with the most gorgeous, Gospel House set as the sun rose. Bliss.
There were also some new stages thrown into the mix this year with some even floating on the sea itself like the Aperol stage, providing a place to chill by the sea with a cocktail and take in an upcoming band or two at the same time. We can’t think of many, if any other, festivals that have this constantly hazy, warm, romantic feel to them even when going in hard to the sounds of punk rock Be Your Own Pet or a full-on techno moment with Charlotte De Witte. And actually special shout out to the Boiler Room stage this year which was down by the water too so even when getting sweaty to Mura Masa, you could still feel the sea breeze.
Primavera Sound 2022 was the first post-pandemic edition and it’s fair to say there were a few teething issues after the three years away, like queuing for everything. But all those queues dissipated in 2023, never having to wait long at a bar, and even finding toilet paper in the loos. What kind of bougie festival is this?!
Then of course there was the line up. One thing Primavera always gets right is ecelcticism and we’re not just meaning playing a Kate Bush track before Rosalía‘s performance – athough we did live for it. No, we started the week on Monday with dark Scottish storytelling courtesy of Arab Strab, before catching the colourful club world of Yunè Pinku on Tuesday followed by the intergalactic outer body experience that is The Comet Is Coming. That was before the main festival even started. This year the festival even hosted J-Pop/K-Pop with PCD-inspired Red Velvet, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu flying in directly from Harujuku and our favourite surprise of the festival, Perfume – we were honestly not expecting three cute Japanese girls to lean in so hard on their techno. Their show was like Gay Pride while the other attendees were at New Order.
Other festival highlights was finally seeing Blur. Hearing them perform so many hits that made up the soundtrack of our teenage years was so emotional that we were watching in tears. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, people. For some reason we are still trying to understand we decided to skip the Motomami tour when dates were first announced so thank the Primavera gods for booking Rosalía on the Saturday headline slot for a Homecoming, end of tour show. We are not sure that we have seen such an inventive use of cameras and stage direction for a show ever and Rosalía herself is so fucking fierce, she slayed the stage with her all male dancers.
One clash of the festival that we could not decide on until the very last minute was Christine & The Queens or Fred Again… but in the end we opted for the right choice, the former. Chris gave us the most epic performace with intense but yet mininmal production, masive ballads and vocals we had just forgotten he had. Such a presence. We showed up for Skrillex‘s set just as the stage caught fire. We were convinced it was a stunt until security kept us waiting 25 minutes as they secured the stage again. We’d yet to see Sonny and there are not many DJs whose charisma jumps out at you across the decks and into the crowd – we’re saying this after having to endure Calvin Harris to keep our spot for both Rosalía & Caroline Polachek. Talking of DJs, a big shout out to the line ups for all the closing sets because each night we were there until 6am dancing to Folamour, Channel Tres & Jayda G. Sunrise sets are our new thing. It’s official.
Loverboy has attended the last four editions of Primavera Sound and full disclosure, when it was first announced the line up was perhaps not our favouirte, and yet thanks to the organisation of the festival itself, this was by far our favourite year.
Primavera Sound 2023 continues in Madrid & Porto, Portugal this weekend.
For more info see www.primaverasound.com
