is Primavera Sound the best festival in the world?

Primavera Sound 2016

Thursday 2nd to Saturday 4th June 2016
Parc del Forum, Barcelona, Spain, Spain
175 euros plus booking fee

Daily capacity: 35,000

Last updated: Thu 12th May 2016

Brian Wilson performing Pet Sounds in full! "When will there be the chance to see this again?" The answer is never. "Cool, best make the most of it then." Pity then that again the sound for it is absolutely farcical even though the setting is perfect, it happens for one gig you can kind of get over it but the third or fourth time it kind of knocks the wind out of your sails.

However, Deerhunter do make their best effort to make a racket on the stage next over which they do to the delight of the crowd even if you need to jam you're way up the front to get the best of it. At times I've seen Deerhunter so nonplussed on a stage that it's severely awkward. But tonight they're a band with a zest and joy added to their already normally great performance.

P J Harvey could have been a difficult one. I've not heard the new album and this clearly wasn't a stage in which she wanted to play the hits, but she's PJ Harvey, she can do what she wants. Inundated with string and brass accompaniment she creates a forceful live show that immediately makes you think ‘shit! I need this record in my life'.

Sigur Ros have always been able to command an audience, even the chattiest ones. They've been away so long I forgot how easy it is to be transfixed by a band. Sigur Ros are, as the old saying goes, good for what ails you - and especially so on day three of a festival. They even treat us to a new track in 'Óveður' which signals to a possible return to the darker style of their earlier albums, a definite good thing.

It would be much simpler if all kind of super groups just scrunched their names together. It would probably save them hassle. That's exactly what Gernot Bronsert, Sebastian Szary (of Modeselektor) and Sascha Ring (aka Apparat) did to let themselves be known as Moderat. And that's fine because they let the music do the talking (and a whole heap of lighting). It takes place on the Heineken stage and even if it seems it would work better in an underground bunker they manage to pull it off. Pulsating beats and stop-start build ups designed to make your head explode, and all delivered beautifully.

Every act I seen where, at the very least worth seeing, at the very most one of the best live bands I've ever seen. It's been like this every time. I've seen some very big publications ask in a rhetorical form after this year's festival – is it the best festival in the world? It's hard to argue against it. If you've been to Primavera, you know how great it is. If you haven't, you owe it to yourself to do so.

But for this reviewer it may have grown too big a beast to handle. They've a shindig in Porto that might be more suited for a moaning git like me next year!

review by: Paul Mullin

photos by: Paul Mullin