Primavera Sound 2022

[Orens]

2 hours ago, lemons said:

That was my favourite primavera, w2 had the best time. Had my must sees and then went with the flow.  Would be disappointing if it permanently moved from Barcelona.

Sticking in Barcelona until at least 2027, only as a one-weekender

[Ohjesus]

i thought gabi’s response to if the fest was staying in barcelona for 2024 was “who knows”?

[JedTheHumanoid]

3 minutes ago, Ohjesus said:

i thought gabi’s response to if the fest was staying in barcelona for 2024 was “who knows”?

I Think it's all part of his negotiation with the city about their support in the festival 

[Ohjesus]

Just now, JedTheHumanoid said:

I Think it's all part of his negotiation with the city about their support in the festival 

yeh that’s what i took from it - the hint that they’re increasingly less cooperative 

[xxialac]

Was this the first year where at times you couldn’t get phone reception? Happened every time I was in mordor and don’t this remember happening previously.

A sign of how oversold the festival was…

[BenG92]

Just now, xxialac said:

Was this the first year where at times you couldn’t get phone reception? Happened every time I was in mordor and don’t this remember happening previously.

A sign of how oversold the festival was…

No issues for me (O2 UK). Hilariously I had constant full signal in the Barcelona underground and I don't even get that at home. 

[JedTheHumanoid]

2 minutes ago, xxialac said:

Was this the first year where at times you couldn’t get phone reception? Happened every time I was in mordor and don’t this remember happening previously.

A sign of how oversold the festival was…

yeah, mostly in RayBan for me, sometimes in mordor as well

[MKBAB]

Manifesting Rosalia, Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean for 2023.

[Zoo Music Girl]

18 minutes ago, BenG92 said:

No issues for me (O2 UK). Hilariously I had constant full signal in the Barcelona underground and I don't even get that at home. 

I noticed this too! So much better than the tube in London.

[Rhak]

One of the things I really love post-festival is revisiting some of the records. Really really enjoyed the last Fontaines DC & Sharon Von Etten ones this morning. 

Mixing it up with other stuff though (hadn't checked on new stuff because wanted to be focused on the W1 music, so i still need to actually listen to Kendrick, The Smile,...)

[FloorFiller]

44 minutes ago, MKBAB said:

Manifesting Rosalia, Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean for 2023.

Forgot Frank will be back on the scene what with him being booked for Coachella. If he actually turns up for that/his other shows is another thing entirely, so even if he was booked for Primavera I’d find it hard to get too excited until he actually walked on stage, which of course he wouldn’t…

[Ecco]

Overall I have mixed feelings for this year’s edition. It was my 8^th consecutive Primavera, my 6^th consecutive as VIP holder.

3 years of waiting is building a hell of excitment and expectation, especially with a 20^th anniversary post covid edition combined with a packed line-up and. Somehow this expectations weren’t satisfied. In my opinion the 2 weekends edition was not good for the city and the festival. I had the feeling that the city and the festival was much busier than before.  

Wednesday at Poble Espanyol, Wet Leg was fun and the location just superb, but it was already an indicator of the crowds for the next days. Queues for having a drink and a filled patio.

On Thursday the bar queues were an absolut disaster. At binance vip area waiting like 45 minutes for one order and missing the half set of les savy fav set is just not acceptable. The same for Sharon Van Etten.Dinosaur jr at Cupra was massively crowded and the sound not loud enough.The last song of Yo La Tengo was a first highlight of the day, a never ending hypnotic closer, pure magic. Tame Impala was their best performance so far that I have witnessed, except of the Strokes cover which felt like politicians begging for votes. Fred Again on Cupra stage was my highlight of the first day, great set, good vibes, excellent crowd, perfect location. Black Lips seemed to be fun but we were already exhausted of the first (busy) day.

On Friday I was standing an hour in a queue during Beck for getting some beers, totally waste of time. This closest VIP to the main stage was horrible, too small, not enough toilets and complete mismanagement of drink orders. The National were great and Caribou just fabulous (Friday highlight). Great sound, excellent video projection, great set with a shout out for the ‘sun’ version. Jamie XX was not as good as in 2017 IMO and the crowd seemed to be tired or too wasted.

On Saturday Nick Cave was impressive, a magic moment of primavera sound, that sort of gig that you will never forget and keep in your heart for the rest of your life. Gorillaz were excellent too, you could feel how happy they were to perform at primavera sound and they made you forget they missed to play DARE. Shout out to the GREEN WORLD version, what a thrill.

Unfortunately the cuitat gigs were as busy as the whole festival, I never managed to enter although I had a VP priority. On Monday the queue for Sons of Kemets was still too big around 22h. On Tuesday we arrived at 22h20 at razzmatazz for SLOWdive, waited 30 minutes as the security guy told us, we would be able to enter soon, but that ‘soon’ was an extra large extended player, so we left. On Wednesday we arrived around 20h50 for poble Espanyol but the priority queue was already nearly as big as the wednesday W1 or W2 queue, no chance to enter as the capacity was already reached.

I hope they will change the VIP areas again to the former editions as this year’s choice was not the best choice. IMO the VIP front areas have to be reinstalled to guarantee a full VIP benefit. As I doubt primvera sound will inform about the VIP conditions/changes before the beginning of the early bird tichkets, the purchase will be a cat in the bag experience.

[Ecco]

1 hour ago, MKBAB said:

Manifesting Rosalia, Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean for 2023.

Frank Ocean is the Kylian Mbappé of Barcelona. Persona non grata.

[Glenn Coco]

I’m gonna miss that food court. Anyone know where to get fried avocado in London?

[scatteredscreens]

I really enjoyed the festival but two weekends was a big commitment, I couldn't do the Saturday of W2 as I was quite ill, assumed it was covid but getting negative lfts at home so probably a festival flu or something.

Also my flight back was cancelled which made me extremely stressed on the Friday of W2 as I was sat trying to book a flight whilst at the festival.

I think I'll definitely return but not next year, the travelling and cancelled flights has really put me off going abroad for a bit. Would like to keep it local for the next year or two and then head to Primavera again or try something else like BKS.

I would like to say though that i definitely don't feel like the festival wasn't as hype as I expected it would be from all the chatter i've read over the years, im gonna put this down to covid and the fest scrambling for money but the fest was dripping with intrusive corporate sponsorships and felt very soulless. All the acts I saw however put on an amazing show and all seemed happy to be there so it didn't detract from the experience, just a bit less than what I was expecting.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with questions and also for contributing to the Whatsapp chat I had going. Sorry for anyone I couldn't add in, once I was in Barcelona I didn't check efests so if you PMed me and I didn't add you I wasn't ignoring you!

[Bram]

My amateur prediction.. Kendrick and Arcade Fire will be on Madcool, While NIN and Artics in PS. Got slight feeling that major pop artist will have slot in the lineup, probably Taylor Swift or Harry Styles. 
 

With the kpop trend in the festival and the success of Dreamcatcher in the this year PS, probably both festival will have major kpop artist , maybe Big Bang, G-Dragon or Black Pink.

[Boss89]

This was my first Primavera. Enjoyed it. But it’s the kind of festival that really needs a stacked lineup. Don’t think I would enjoy myself if I had a couple of hours to kill every day.

First day the bars were shite. But all the other complaints were a bit too much if you ask me. Okay it was busy. But I never felt unsafe during shows like King Gizzard, Dinosaur Jr, Pond, Tame Impala (which were probably the busiest I attended or at least from the place where I stood).

If you have a tiny bit of brains. You were smart enough to go to a bar whenever you were walking to a show and pass a stage which no one were playing. Mostly I had my drinks in a couple of minutes that way. If you were extra smart you'd buy a beer and something stronger, which still tastes good if isn't cold anymore, like gin-tonic for example. First drink the beer. And after that you're still good for an hour.

 

Best acts: Pond, Pavement, Caroline Polachek, King Gizzard (both at Razzmatazz 2 at la Ciutat, and at the festival).

[gingerevans84]

2 hours ago, Ecco said:

Overall I have mixed feelings for this year’s edition. It was my 8^th consecutive Primavera, my 6^th consecutive as VIP holder.

3 years of waiting is building a hell of excitment and expectation, especially with a 20^th anniversary post covid edition combined with a packed line-up and. Somehow this expectations weren’t satisfied. In my opinion the 2 weekends edition was not good for the city and the festival. I had the feeling that the city and the festival was much busier than before.  

Wednesday at Poble Espanyol, Wet Leg was fun and the location just superb, but it was already an indicator of the crowds for the next days. Queues for having a drink and a filled patio.

On Thursday the bar queues were an absolut disaster. At binance vip area waiting like 45 minutes for one order and missing the half set of les savy fav set is just not acceptable. The same for Sharon Van Etten.Dinosaur jr at Cupra was massively crowded and the sound not loud enough.The last song of Yo La Tengo was a first highlight of the day, a never ending hypnotic closer, pure magic. Tame Impala was their best performance so far that I have witnessed, except of the Strokes cover which felt like politicians begging for votes. Fred Again on Cupra stage was my highlight of the first day, great set, good vibes, excellent crowd, perfect location. Black Lips seemed to be fun but we were already exhausted of the first (busy) day.

On Friday I was standing an hour in a queue during Beck for getting some beers, totally waste of time. This closest VIP to the main stage was horrible, too small, not enough toilets and complete mismanagement of drink orders. The National were great and Caribou just fabulous (Friday highlight). Great sound, excellent video projection, great set with a shout out for the ‘sun’ version. Jamie XX was not as good as in 2017 IMO and the crowd seemed to be tired or too wasted.

On Saturday Nick Cave was impressive, a magic moment of primavera sound, that sort of gig that you will never forget and keep in your heart for the rest of your life. Gorillaz were excellent too, you could feel how happy they were to perform at primavera sound and they made you forget they missed to play DARE. Shout out to the GREEN WORLD version, what a thrill.

Unfortunately the cuitat gigs were as busy as the whole festival, I never managed to enter although I had a VP priority. On Monday the queue for Sons of Kemets was still too big around 22h. On Tuesday we arrived at 22h20 at razzmatazz for SLOWdive, waited 30 minutes as the security guy told us, we would be able to enter soon, but that ‘soon’ was an extra large extended player, so we left. On Wednesday we arrived around 20h50 for poble Espanyol but the priority queue was already nearly as big as the wednesday W1 or W2 queue, no chance to enter as the capacity was already reached.

I hope they will change the VIP areas again to the former editions as this year’s choice was not the best choice. IMO the VIP front areas have to be reinstalled to guarantee a full VIP benefit. As I doubt primvera sound will inform about the VIP conditions/changes before the beginning of the early bird tichkets, the purchase will be a cat in the bag experience.

Not surprised the city gigs were full if you went so late! Imagine these gigs in London. Brixton, Roundhouse, Koko and other small(ish) venues. The queues would be mental, and I certainly wouldnt be queuing that late. Or I would pay the £15 to get entry if I wanted to see someone.

[pne094]

I didnt have a VIP ticket in 2019, was the VIP area still at the front of the main stages? Remember it being a bit embarrasing in 2018 (or 2017), and that I actually didnt use that area on a couple of occasions. It got weird at some concerts where the fans was going mental on one side of the stage while VIP crowd was standing there with their hands in their pockets one the other side 😅 Haha. Remember RTJ asking what was wrong with the crowd on the right side of the stage while the other side was extremely hyped.

[Rhak]

1 hour ago, pne094 said:

I didnt have a VIP ticket in 2019, was the VIP area still at the front of the main stages? Remember it being a bit embarrasing in 2018 (or 2017), and that I actually didnt use that area on a couple of occasions. It got weird at some concerts where the fans was going mental on one side of the stage while VIP crowd was standing there with their hands in their pockets one the other side 😅 Haha. Remember RTJ asking what was wrong with the crowd on the right side of the stage while the other side was extremely hyped.

Apart from my inner socialist, the above reason is why I'm against front stage VIP areas. There's just too much people there who, I'm sorry to say (and I realize those are not posting here), are not invested enough in the music. So I guess they wanted to make it better than the side VIP area, which was kinda lame. But not have the front without fun area, which was lame for bands & other fans to the current situation which still turned out to be lame (mainly for VIP'ers themselves). Conclusion: VIP Is lame. 

Sorry couldn't help myself. Anyways: festival is aware of the difficulties but hasn't found the right solution so far. 

[yaniv297]

17 hours ago, xxialac said:

The water fury for some, especially on reddit, I could never begin to understand.

On the rare occasions I felt like I needed a water I, er, bought a water which was sold at every bar.

And I even found a couple of places giving cans and bottles out for free.

We're talking about W1 Thursday mostly. In the next two days there were loads of cans and bottles everywhere (and also we knew we needed to sneak in bottle cap), so I've had enough water and no worries. 

But Thursday was genuinely shocking - I literally ended up asking total strangers in the audience if they had some water because it felt unsafe. I was saving up a spot for Pavement - one of my favorite bands in the whole world, and the initial reason I bought the ticket - and actually considered leaving the spot just because I was afraid to pass out during the concert.

Thankfully some cool guys in the audience gave me water, and my friend was somehow able to reach me and get me some water - after the poor guy spent pretty much the entire Tame Impala set in the bar queue, and then somehow made his way through this huge crowd with two open water glasses without spilling them. So by Pavement, we were well hydrated and it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the show - though I have to admit, mentally the stress and shock from the experience was definitely still there and I wasn't in my best state. Thankfully Pavement are so damn great they can cure anything, but still it was an absolutely shocking experience in every way.

I actually kinda considered ditching the rest of the festival, that's how bad it was. Was so relieved to see the free water being given away everywhere in the next day - credit to PS for fixing it quick.

Edited June 13, 2022 by yaniv297

[Rhak]

First off: in general compared to the other festivals I know, when the weather goes above 25C you make sure there is ample tap water (FYI: in Spain, tap water is usually not considered to be ok to drink although it actually is). And the easiest spot to do so is near the toilets because you have to have water there anyways. Plus: this actually decreases the queues at your bars (but you earn less money obviously).And yeah, since primavera doesn't really do this and the queues were so bad, the first day was a shit show and people got really thirsty. 

I believed things were a lot better the following days but i was shocked to arrive at 6pm at the site, seeing 20 people in line at the water station near the locker room while 15m from there there was a tent where they were handing out water for free so again, communication was really poor. I told the people in line, half of them didn't even believe me. I got to the site on both friday & saturday and just stocked up: 4 cans (that water tasted awful btw) in my backpack, so crazy that didn't even open them on friday and saturday i drank one, had 3 other ones that i closed with my smuggled in caps. Put them in my backpack and always knew i had water at hand but with the bars running a lot smoother it wasn't really an issue anymore. I noticed even before the festival that some people were already upset about the lack of free water here on the forum. I'm not entirely with them as water is becoming a scarce good and should not be considered a free for all thing. On the other hand, this was a pretty warm edition. Anyways, in my memory they've never had more (in fact, i didn't even know those fountains were there) but yeah obviously it's going to be a problem when it's warm AND people have to get in line for 45min at least to get a drink.  

[livenstu]

I don't even know where to start with Primavera 2022.  I've read people going as far as saying it's the new Fyre festival (really?!), to clickbait articles in the NME collecting up angry tweets & then long term attendees saying what a shit show the whole thing was (well, the first day at least).  

This was my 9th, and after 2019, which might be my favourite so far, it was a bit of a letdown, BUT that was only the first Thursday - overcrowding (because nobody was in the BITS area - I didn't go to main stage area that day), long queues for the bars (only the 2011 screw up matched this), lack of water.  But then moving into the BITS area for Let's Eat Grandma & it was like a time tunnel back to 2019!

The WKD 1 Friday & Sat were vast improvements, the crowds were so chilled after the stuff I'd seen / read on Thursday, and as always SO MUCH great music.  The Caretaker & Dua Lipa on the same bill, amazing!

Got into the Jockstrap show (incredible in that tiny club), Los Bitchos & then Pom Pom Squad - Magdalena Bay - Ride - Khruangbin (rubbish sound for the first 2 bands) in the week & then WKD 2 felt like everything was pretty much fixed from WKD 1.

I'll never do 2 weekends back to back again, I feel broken & also now have COVID.  But overall I thought it was a pretty strong edition with some problems on the first day that luckily got sorted.

I've never gone VIP & wasn't planning on doing Brunch on the Beach, but I totally get the fact they screwed up big time with the communication on that one.

HIGHLIGHTS - Richard Dawson & Circle, Let's Eat Grandma, OTOBOKE BEAVER(!), Weyes Blood, Little Simz, Lightning Bolt, Jenny Hval, Abbath, Beach House, Jockstrap, Khruangbin, Dua Lipa, High on Fire, Run the Jewels, Arooj Aftab, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Oranssi Pazuzu.  Also down the front for the Smile was great but they never truly came alive for me.

[Rhak]

3 minutes ago, livenstu said:

I don't even know where to start with Primavera 2022.  I've read people going as far as saying it's the new Fyre festival (really?!), to clickbait articles in the NME collecting up angry tweets & then long term attendees saying what a shit show the whole thing was (well, the first day at least).  

This was my 9th, and after 2019, which might be my favourite so far, it was a bit of a letdown, BUT that was only the first Thursday - overcrowding (because nobody was in the BITS area - I didn't go to main stage area that day), long queues for the bars (only the 2011 screw up matched this), lack of water.  But then moving into the BITS area for Let's Eat Grandma & it was like a time tunnel back to 2019!

The WKD 1 Friday & Sat were vast improvements, the crowds were so chilled after the stuff I'd seen / read on Thursday, and as always SO MUCH great music.  The Caretaker & Dua Lipa on the same bill, amazing!

Got into the Jockstrap show (incredible in that tiny club), Los Bitchos & then Pom Pom Squad - Magdalena Bay - Ride - Khruangbin (rubbish sound for the first 2 bands) in the week & then WKD 2 felt like everything was pretty much fixed from WKD 1.

I'll never do 2 weekends back to back again, I feel broken & also now have COVID.  But overall I thought it was a pretty strong edition with some problems on the first day that luckily got sorted.

I've never gone VIP & wasn't planning on doing Brunch on the Beach, but I totally get the fact they screwed up big time with the communication on that one.

HIGHLIGHTS - Richard Dawson & Circle, Let's Eat Grandma, OTOBOKE BEAVER(!), Weyes Blood, Little Simz, Lightning Bolt, Jenny Hval, Abbath, Beach House, Jockstrap, Khruangbin, Dua Lipa, High on Fire, Run the Jewels, Arooj Aftab, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Oranssi Pazuzu.  Also down the front for the Smile was great but they never truly came alive for me.

Totally agree that music wise it was a fantastic edition although i had a different trajectory. And I wanted to say that everyone who did W1+W2 is a true warrior to me (i knew beforehand that was going to be too taxing for my body). Especially those whom I have heard will also be attending Glastonbury soon. 

[livenstu]

5 minutes ago, Rhak said:

Totally agree that music wise it was a fantastic edition although i had a different trajectory. And I wanted to say that everyone who did W1+W2 is a true warrior to me (i knew beforehand that was going to be too taxing for my body). Especially those whom I have heard will also be attending Glastonbury soon. 

hahahaha, Primavera WKD 1 & 2 & Glastonbury!!  That is quite some going!  I'll be attending Glastonbury, from my sofa.