A mixed first day for us.
First of all, we were honestly quite shocked that there was no security check at all at the VIP entrance around 7:30 PM. No bag check, nothing. I’ve attended Primavera many times over the years and this felt surprisingly lax for an event of this size. Did anyone else experience the same?
Another disappointment was the communication regarding the weather situation. Primavera has some of the best sound systems and speaker setups in the festival world, yet somehow they were not able to make a single clear announcement explaining what was happening. Instead, people were expected to read tiny messages on screens in Mordor while thousands were left wondering what was going on. A simple and direct audio announcement would have gone a long way.
On a lighter note, this guy absolutely made my day.
Sitting right in front of the Estrella Damm terrace, wearing nothing but a long-sleeve shirt, jeans and a pair of Converse All Stars, he remained completely unbothered by the rain. While everyone else was looking for shelter, he sat there wearing sunglasses, calmly watching the crowd as if he was watching a movie.
Absolute main character energy!
I think my party got pretty lucky last night, at least compared to some of the horror stories over on Reddit. I was very impressed with Father John Misty in particular.
Perhaps my view would be different if I were a big Massive Attack fan or whatever, but right now my feeling is that if it's not safe for the shows to go ahead... then it's not safe for the shows to go ahead. I'd much rather they were cautious than roll the dice when it comes to something like that.
Here's hoping everyone has a better day today.
It was awful during Father John Misty and I was close to the front. People just shouting and laughing their f-ing heads off about nothing in particular and being louder than the bloody stage.
Other things I noted yesterday, away from the obvious…
Positives:
- an extra water point towards the back left of the main stages has appeared, which I believe is new for this year (and was much needed)
- handing out free ponchos was a good touch
- caroline were fantastic. I’d never been in the Auditori Rockdelux before, it’s a wonderful venue and a great venue if you fancy a more chilled out environment
Negatives:
- the talkers. I know it’s always bad here (and most festivals nowadays) but f**k me people wouldn’t shut up yesterday. I wonder if it was partly as a result of people being at artists they had little interest in (due to rain limiting their options), although it wasn’t great during blood orange. We’ll be making an effort to get a spot nearer the front for anyone we particularly care about over the weekend
- not enough staff around (and the ones that are there are largely useless). Most other festivals have them everywhere and are happy to help