Primavera Sound Barcelona 2023 + Primavera Sound Madrid 2023

[weirdfishes]

My impressions from friday:

• The buses were an absolute mess. I had to wait 2h in a kilometric queue to return from the festival. Very bad organization.
• The site being 40km away from the city center and without any public transit connection doesn't help. There's a reason no one uses that venue.
• The site itself was fine, maybe soulless compared to the Fòrum, but nothing wrong with it. They recovered well from the flooding, except at the Amazon stage, where there was a lot of mud under the fake grass.
• The main stages were absolutely packed. I don't know what the ticket sales looked like, but it definitely didn't look empty in those two stages. I've seen many comments that all the other stages were half empty, but honestly with the incredible back to back DM-Kendrick-Fred-Skrillex sets, most people I talked to didn't see the need to go to any other stages. Today will be a more "balanced" day in terms of stages, so I guess that we'll see the real attendance here.
• The acts were amazing. Four Tet had one of the best DJ sets I've seen. Kendrick did a power performance with all the classics. Fred again's set was super beautiful and energetic and emotional. Skrillex was fire after fire with no rest, he played his old songs and I felt like a teen again. Baby Keem had sound issues at the beginning, but they could solve it and he did a very energetic set with a great crowd. The Boiler Room delivered with its sets too. 10/10 in this regard

Overall, the artists were great, the venue and the organization were not. Barcelona is indeed a much better festival, and I don't think they will repeat a Madrid edition unless they change the venue.

PS: To those complaining that there's no metro after 2am: that's just the general experience of a night out in Madrid, you either suffer through the night buses combinations, you party/wait until 6am, or you get a taxi, nothing the festival can do there!

[SwallowOrSleepOnTheWetSpot]

13 hours ago, franks said:

This. There was no way we could do Barca or Madrid this year, just way too expensive. Decided to give Porto a go instead and I’m 100% converted. Even with the storms! 

Would love to do Barca again at some point but the only way I see that happening right now is if I have a huge windfall of cash or PS reduces prices, neither particularly likely….

Or just fly into Madrid and then take the Ouigo train to Barcalona.

[ThomT94]

1 hour ago, ConfidenceMan said:

I am here for this mash up. 

It was a pretty odd experience. Whenever there was a quiet moment during an alvvays song you'd hear that thud in the background. It was both amusing and ruined the immersion at the same time 

Same happened during Unwound's set on plentitude later that night 

[ThomT94]

Bus was much faster today, still unreasonably far to have to travel but at least there was no traffic issues

[ThomT94]

Also, does anyone else in Madrid know if there's a poster stand at this festival? Or is it just at Barcelona? 

I haven't seen any information about it anywhere 

[damo101]

1 minute ago, ThomT94 said:

Also, does anyone else in Madrid know if there's a poster stand at this festival? Or is it just at Barcelona? 

I haven't seen any information about it anywhere 

There was some posters at the merch stand closest to the fountain near the entrance/pull and bear bit

[xxialac]

Was it really necessary to have a heavy armed police presence last night?

That said at one point I did see a couple have a minor disagreement about who got to go first on the swings.

[ThomT94]

2 hours ago, damo101 said:

There was some posters at the merch stand closest to the fountain near the entrance/pull and bear bit

The lineup one? I got one of those yesterday 

I mean something like Flatstock that they have in Barcelona, where a bunch of different artists are there selling posters, including ones for acts playing the festival 

[Limonado]

The statement that the organizer cannot do anything about public transport in Madrid convinces me that I should go back to Barcelona next year. At least after a long night at the festival , I can  get back to my comfy bed much quicker!

[Limonado]

This is how I get from my hotel to the stadium.

22 stops with one change already.

+ half an hour of shuttle bus (yesterday 1.20 hr)

I would like to enjoy a festival, not passing 4 hours to commute

 

[xxialac]

Sevdaliza gets bonus points for her Prodigy/early 90s DJ techno medley.

[Ohjesus]

death grips pulled out 

[xxialac]

3 minutes ago, Ohjesus said:

death grips pulled out 

The thought of the shuttle bus proved too much for them.

[Fnmentaluk]

Alot busier than any other day . But how many will leave after Rosalia, so might leave before she finishes or stay to the very end for Charlotte de witte 

[Johndenis]

On 6/9/2023 at 8:57 AM, xxialac said:

Unless I’m missing something the forecast seems to be for a bit of light rain at times today and the same tomorrow.

In the end it’s Porto that’s been hit hard.

Catching up on the thread. Losing a whole day could hardly have been harder?

A cancellation because of rain seems so bizarre. Do we suspect dishonesty? This weird site really seems to have had nothing going for it. Hours from the city centre and not even any drainage. 

[festivalguy97]

I am really happy for the people that are enjoying Primavera Madrid and really hope that the festival lives, but not like this. With all the bad things that happened or that I saw I could not enjoy it, and the ticket was very expensive, for this price you expect much much more. Main takeaways (they are all bad):

-The first day cancelations and the poor communication about it, and still no answer on what they are going to do about the full festival pass holders;

-The concert of Blur (I know it’s better that nothing) but only for 2k people is a shame;

-Terrible connection to the festival, took me 2 hours from the center of Madrid to come, and 2,5 hours to comeback. I know that every major festival has problems with the transport, but Primavera Madrid is by far the worst experience I had;

-The site feels very empty, even today that sold more tickets, feels like there is no soul to the festival, plus the sound overlaps other stages, during Kelela the only thing I could hear was My Morning Jacket, and the same during Four Tet. Some parts of the festival site are literally empty while the others are too full;

From the positive things, I really enjoyed many of the concerts that I saw, they were mostly good and always on time. But for this festival to live, they need to change the location and improve other things also. If not, I am going back to Barcelona.

[Fnmentaluk]

Not even 100 people at two shell.

[xxialac]

4 hours ago, festivalguy97 said:

I am really happy for the people that are enjoying Primavera Madrid and really hope that the festival lives, but not like this. With all the bad things that happened or that I saw I could not enjoy it, and the ticket was very expensive, for this price you expect much much more. Main takeaways (they are all bad):

-The first day cancelations and the poor communication about it, and still no answer on what they are going to do about the full festival pass holders;

-The concert of Blur (I know it’s better that nothing) but only for 2k people is a shame;

-Terrible connection to the festival, took me 2 hours from the center of Madrid to come, and 2,5 hours to comeback. I know that every major festival has problems with the transport, but Primavera Madrid is by far the worst experience I had;

-The site feels very empty, even today that sold more tickets, feels like there is no soul to the festival, plus the sound overlaps other stages, during Kelela the only thing I could hear was My Morning Jacket, and the same during Four Tet. Some parts of the festival site are literally empty while the others are too full;

From the positive things, I really enjoyed many of the concerts that I saw, they were mostly good and always on time. But for this festival to live, they need to change the location and improve other things also. If not, I am going back to Barcelona.

No need to worry about the decision. Madrid won’t happen in this format next year. That said, it was much busier today (Rosalia effect?)

[Fnmentaluk]

Was anyone else at gilla band , that was f**king amazing, under the garage holy jesus f**king hell 

[festivalguy97]

1 hour ago, xxialac said:

No need to worry about the decision. Madrid won’t happen in this format next year. That said, it was much busier today (Rosalia effect?)

Isn’t Mad Cool using also this place for their next edition? I’m quite curious to see how’s that going to work, maybe they will use Primavera’s mistakes and improve the site and the connection to the site.

However from dozens of people that I spoke in the festival, almost no one wants to comeback here to Arganda next year. 

[xxialac]

List of circumstances that would result in me returning to Primavera Madrid in Argenda

- I am clinically insane

Edited June 11, 2023 by xxialac

[Fnmentaluk]

16 minutes ago, xxialac said:

List of circumstances that would result in me returning to Primavera Madrid in Argenda

- I am clinically insane

Can't be far of it though 😁

The only other solution is if you don't drink and bring a car , they seem to get away ok

[Fnmentaluk]

I wonder if they would consider a camping area for next year, surely some people would consider it too avoid the bus queues

Especially if you done something for them on Wednesday night , exclusive stage thing 

[xxialac]

16 minutes ago, Fnmentaluk said:

I wonder if they would consider a camping area for next year, surely some people would consider it too avoid the bus queues

Especially if you done something for them on Wednesday night , exclusive stage thing 

No locals are going to camp so close (in miles, if not in traffic) to Madrid.

[Fnmentaluk]

21 minutes ago, xxialac said:

No locals are going to camp so close (in miles, if not in traffic) to Madrid.

Just rambling talking shite standing in queue for nearly 2 hrs , f**k knows when people at the end of queue will get a bus