Primavera Sound Barcelona 2023 + Primavera Sound Madrid 2023

[Drums Please Fab]

2 hours ago, xxialac said:

A lot of people on Reddit are pretty odious and whine about everything (there was a guy angry with all of Portugal because he got pickpocketed) but they are right on Madrid.

There was also hardly attempt to control the queue which meant people were cutting in en masse, a kick in the teeth to the people who ended up waiting 2 hours plus.

What they will do is determine whether the very low ticket sales were because of the location. If so, they’ll have to find a new one (might not be possible). If not, Madrid is dead. 

I had a lad by the throat in IFEMA after madcool last year. Jumped the bus queue and shouldered my missus out of the way.

Queue skippers are just vile.

[xxialac]

Mad Cool has just announced a new location which is (wait for it) in Madrid. 

So if the site is any good, they should use the same one. If that means it's smaller and more Porto-sized, so be it. 

[Drums Please Fab]

1 hour ago, xxialac said:

Mad Cool has just announced a new location which is (wait for it) in Madrid. 

So if the site is any good, they should use the same one. If that means it's smaller and more Porto-sized, so be it. 

Will report back on July 6th.

Its my next festival this year. 

Hopefully they havnt ruined it. 
 

IFEMA worked just fine.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Drums Please Fab

[ibo]

They could consider a smaller version for Madrid the same way they do in Porto rather than mirroring the big line up of Barcelona.
If they can’t find any better premises / venues etc in Madrid. 
could even be a city festival in Madrid in different venues day + night. 
less bands. Less venues. Less commute. But a successful edition. 
 

 

[jannybruck]

Ultimately they did this Madrid edition to flex their muscles to the higher ups at Barcelona city that they didn't ~need~ Barcelona and could move the festival anywhere (the promise of a free site in Madrid surely sweetened the deal too), but this weekend sort of proved it's not quite that easy.

I understand from a capitalist standpoint their shareholders require as much growth and expansion as possible, but the Barcelona one is only successful because of years of nurturing it, specific programming based on the site's needs and the way crowds respond to things at certain times, the city's transport and layout etc. It's not just as simple as the Primavera brand being so powerful that they can just plonk it anywhere and make it work, and – although I hope everyone who went had a great time in Madrid – I hope this makes the festival reconsider their priorities in terms of expanding.

I agree a smaller cut down Madrid version would be great, a sort of day-and-night indoor thing across the city, and would mean they still get to lock acts into two (or three if you include Porto) festival exclusivity deals like they want.

[festivalguy97]

54 minutes ago, jannybruck said:

Ultimately they did this Madrid edition to flex their muscles to the higher ups at Barcelona city that they didn't ~need~ Barcelona and could move the festival anywhere (the promise of a free site in Madrid surely sweetened the deal too), but this weekend sort of proved it's not quite that easy.

I understand from a capitalist standpoint their shareholders require as much growth and expansion as possible, but the Barcelona one is only successful because of years of nurturing it, specific programming based on the site's needs and the way crowds respond to things at certain times, the city's transport and layout etc. It's not just as simple as the Primavera brand being so powerful that they can just plonk it anywhere and make it work, and – although I hope everyone who went had a great time in Madrid – I hope this makes the festival reconsider their priorities in terms of expanding.

I agree a smaller cut down Madrid version would be great, a sort of day-and-night indoor thing across the city, and would mean they still get to lock acts into two (or three if you include Porto) festival exclusivity deals like they want.

If they make a 4 days festival in Madrid, they can easily bring all the artists from Barcelona but spread them all over the city and different venues or use a smaller venue and spread artists of 3 days for 4 days like in Porto. I think they will need time to figure this out, hope Primavera Madrid continues, but not in the form it happened last weekend. 

[xxialac]

16 minutes ago, festivalguy97 said:

If they make a 4 days festival in Madrid, they can easily bring all the artists from Barcelona but spread them all over the city and different venues or use a smaller venue and spread artists of 3 days for 4 days like in Porto. I think they will need time to figure this out, hope Primavera Madrid continues, but not in the form it happened last weekend. 

The two problems with the former is a) that they don't own venues like they do in Barcelona (Apolo) and don't have the influence to shape this how they want and b) that there won't be enough space to accommodate the headliners (as we saw with Blur).

It seems like they are determined to do Madrid but with Arganda failing they will just have to accept a smaller venue and reduced lineup. 

They are also no doubt looking at other cities. Can see them seriously looking at France. Marseille? Lyon?

Edit: and don't expect 6am finishes in Madrid next year. If in the city, will probably be more like 2am to comply with the licensing.

Edited June 12, 2023 by xxialac

[UsernameHere]

Just on the Reddit threads regrading Madrid - I trust the reports on here as most users on this forum are quite reasonable so I do accept that the Madrid edition was a bit of a mess. 

However, I find that Subreddit to have some of the most entitled and annoying people imaginable. They expect everything to be absolutely perfect and just live to complain from what I've seen. 

For example I couldn't believe some of the moaning about cancellations during 2022. I understand it was disappointing (it was for me too) but we were going through a global pandemic and some acts pulled out due to COVID. Hardly the fault of the organisers yet people were calling it fraud! Bear in mind that this was also the best lineup in the world and one of the best in the history of the festival.

/end rant.

[xxialac]

Posted u/pssucks 9 minutes ago

Primavera SCAM'D FESTIVAL more like 

I cannot believe I'm out more than $3,000 of my hard earned cash because of these Spanish criminals. The only reason I came to this hellhole was because I heard Bo Peep and Her Sheep were playing. Totally awesome right?!

And then of course at the last minute this scummy festival was HAPPY to see them removed from the lineup. Yes, yes, the guitarist died of cancer and the singer is in a coma after a hit and run but the fact they didn't give me ALL OF my money back and a voucher to attend the mighty Peeps reunion at a time of my choosing all speaks to what a FRAUD this sh*tty festival is. NEVER AGAIN!!

[jannybruck]

Everyone's opinions about how their money is spent and used, and the experience they get from it, is valid.

The reddit does veer towards people being negative but conversely it is also weighted more heavily towards Americans and internationals, and younger people who aren't as experienced with festivals or obsessive about the festival circuit/Primavera as people on this particular forum are. It's good to keep that in mind. Not saying all of it is valid but dismissing criticism as people just moaning for the sake of it gives brands like Primavera a free pass whenever they do f**k up.

Edited June 12, 2023 by jannybruck

[xxialac]

34 minutes ago, jannybruck said:

Everyone's opinions about how their money is spent and used, and the experience they get from it, is valid.

The reddit does veer towards people being negative but conversely it is also weighted more heavily towards Americans and internationals, and younger people who aren't as experienced with festivals or obsessive about the festival circuit/Primavera as people on this particular forum are. It's good to keep that in mind. Not saying all of it is valid but dismissing criticism as people just moaning for the sake of it gives brands like Primavera a free pass whenever they do f**k up.

Strong disagree. They're all grown adults and the sense of entitlement and melodramatic statements is shameful.

No one is saying Primavera should be immune from criticism - indeed there has been plenty on here - and in case the organisers are not using festival forums as the barometer for whether they are doing a good job.

[chilirocker]

2 hours ago, UsernameHere said:

Just on the Reddit threads regrading Madrid - I trust the reports on here as most users on this forum are quite reasonable so I do accept that the Madrid edition was a bit of a mess. 

However, I find that Subreddit to have some of the most entitled and annoying people imaginable. They expect everything to be absolutely perfect and just live to complain from what I've seen. 

For example I couldn't believe some of the moaning about cancellations during 2022. I understand it was disappointing (it was for me too) but we were going through a global pandemic and some acts pulled out due to COVID. Hardly the fault of the organisers yet people were calling it fraud! Bear in mind that this was also the best lineup in the world and one of the best in the history of the festival.

/end rant.

There’s no entitlement regarding the complaints about Madrid. It was an absolute mess. They chose a site 40km from the city centre with no public transportation, they had about 50 buses for 50,000 people, many were queuing for 4 hours at the end of the night, taxis were upwards of €70 to get back to Madrid, on Friday, they had 4 people scanning tickets at the bus station and the traffic was so bad that it took 4.5 hours from queuing to collect them to getting through the festival gates to the extent of them having to delay Depeche Mode’s start by 45 minutes. Then Thursday which they cancelled because they didn’t prepare for the rain which had been expected for 3 weeks. When you got there it was good - the sound and the bar queues and layout. But I spent 11 hours on buses or waiting for buses over the two days. 

[UsernameHere]

15 minutes ago, jannybruck said:

Everyone's opinions about how their money is spent and used, and the experience they get from it, is valid.

The reddit does veer towards people being negative but conversely it is also weighted more heavily towards Americans and internationals, and younger people who aren't as experienced with festivals or obsessive about the festival circuit/Primavera as people on this particular forum are. It's good to keep that in mind. Not saying all of it is valid but dismissing criticism as people just moaning for the sake of it gives brands like Primavera a free pass whenever they do f**k up.

Yeah, look it's completely fine to feel annoyed or disappointed when something goes wrong - I get that. I've just seen a lot of ridiculous takes on there about scams and fraud because literally a single act that they hung all their hopes on cancelled (especially when this was for valid reasons during a pandemic or for health reasons) which I think is a bit silly and entitled. But as you alluded to - some of those extreme cases are probably young people who haven't matured yet and are just emotional.

If you spend money you can't afford to lose to go to a festival just to see a single act, that's on you imo. People have to understand that acts cancel festivals all the time and when it's last minute, replacements are tricky and not always possible. 

To be clear I'm not saying we shouldn't ever criticise the festival. I think it was poor that they didn't replace Massive Attack personally as they were a huge draw and there should've been enough time, but like I said - some of the takes were just unreasonable.

 

[UsernameHere]

1 minute ago, chilirocker said:

There’s no entitlement regarding the complaints about Madrid. It was an absolute mess. They chose a site 40km from the city centre with no public transportation, they had about 50 buses for 50,000 people, many were queuing for 4 hours at the end of the night, taxis were upwards of €70 to get back to Madrid, on Friday, they had 4 people scanning tickets at the bus station and the traffic was so bad that it took 4.5 hours from queuing to collect them to getting through the festival gates to the extent of them having to delay Depeche Mode’s start by 45 minutes. Then Thursday which they cancelled because they didn’t prepare for the rain which had been expected for 3 weeks. When you got there it was good - the sound and the bar queues and layout. But I spent 11 hours on buses or waiting for buses over the two days. 

I agree, especially regarding the choice of the site. I think I even commented here on that being a bad idea when it was announced last year. My comment was not aimed at valid criticism of Madrid. It was more of a general comment on how I feel about some of the reactions are on that subreddit, that's all.

[BenjoDiMeo]

More people upset on Reddit because more people on Reddit, for the most part.

Hundreds of positive messages have been posted during BCN.

[schoolyb]

I've nothing particularly new to add to this conversation, fairly universal agreement that Madrid isn't viable in this current format, you assume they're exploring new city sites and if they can find one that works then the triple header with Barca and Porto gives them some clout with offering deals. 

If Thursday had been on I think overall I'd have been happy with the decision to choose Madrid. I've done Barca a few times and Porto once and there's always that element of trading off trying somewhere new with something/somewhere you know works. What I paid for flights and a hotel would probably have been 3x those costs for Barca.

I probably had marginally better bus situation than most, long one in on Friday was just a buzzkill, should have brought more booze with me but didn't miss anything and had a great run of acts when I did get there. Bus home Friday was fine, 35mins and no queue at ~4am. Saturday was quicker getting in and flaked out at 2am so walked straight onto a bus - also wasn't fussed about Rosalia and it was clear most of the crowd was there for her so the bundle after she finished was predictable (but a call you don't have to make if you can walk home!)

Almost every festival seems to be struggling this year, all line ups feel comparatively weak. But Primavera probably got a bigger identity crisis than most, the acts that make it special aren't the ones who sell 100k tickets and recently it feels like there's a trade off between keeping the regulars happy and selling day tickets for the big ticket (younger/pop) acts. You look at the line up for the Benidorm weekender and they're clearly still committed to what they were about. Previous Barca/Porto fests still pulled decent crowds for the leftfield stuff but really felt for some of the smaller stage artists this weekend - probably because more of the Primavera regulars swerved Madrid and it was filled out with locals.

[pipan]

Even though I'm a big PS enthusiast and I consider this year's Barcelona edition to be nearly perfect, reading about the experiences of Madrid's attendees left a sour taste in my mouth.

How can it be so badly organised that people were queuing for bus home three hours? On Sunday morning, when there's almost no traffic. And after the organizers repeatedly reassured us that they are well aware of the distance and we really shouldn't worry about the commute, they had it covered.

Apart from the other (more or less relevant) complaints, this one thing alone is more than enough to complain anywhere and anyway you want.

[xxialac]

15 minutes ago, schoolyb said:

I've nothing particularly new to add to this conversation, fairly universal agreement that Madrid isn't viable in this current format, you assume they're exploring new city sites and if they can find one that works then the triple header with Barca and Porto gives them some clout with offering deals. 

If Thursday had been on I think overall I'd have been happy with the decision to choose Madrid. I've done Barca a few times and Porto once and there's always that element of trading off trying somewhere new with something/somewhere you know works. What I paid for flights and a hotel would probably have been 3x those costs for Barca.

I probably had marginally better bus situation than most, long one in on Friday was just a buzzkill, should have brought more booze with me but didn't miss anything and had a great run of acts when I did get there. Bus home Friday was fine, 35mins and no queue at ~4am. Saturday was quicker getting in and flaked out at 2am so walked straight onto a bus - also wasn't fussed about Rosalia and it was clear most of the crowd was there for her so the bundle after she finished was predictable (but a call you don't have to make if you can walk home!)

Almost every festival seems to be struggling this year, all line ups feel comparatively weak. But Primavera probably got a bigger identity crisis than most, the acts that make it special aren't the ones who sell 100k tickets and recently it feels like there's a trade off between keeping the regulars happy and selling day tickets for the big ticket (younger/pop) acts. You look at the line up for the Benidorm weekender and they're clearly still committed to what they were about. Previous Barca/Porto fests still pulled decent crowds for the leftfield stuff but really felt for some of the smaller stage artists this weekend - probably because more of the Primavera regulars swerved Madrid and it was filled out with locals.

Yeah some good points.

I definitely felt a big gulf between Barcelona/Porto and Madrid in attendees.

The former gets much more of an even interest between the 'big names' and the quirky stuff, albeit obviously still geared much more to the former.

Madrid crowd was perfectly nice but felt like they were less about the music and as a result the undercard often played in front of tiny crowds. Not helped by the mass free ticket giveaway of course...

[Drums Please Fab]

58 minutes ago, chilirocker said:

There’s no entitlement regarding the complaints about Madrid. It was an absolute mess. They chose a site 40km from the city centre with no public transportation, they had about 50 buses for 50,000 people, many were queuing for 4 hours at the end of the night, taxis were upwards of €70 to get back to Madrid, on Friday, they had 4 people scanning tickets at the bus station and the traffic was so bad that it took 4.5 hours from queuing to collect them to getting through the festival gates to the extent of them having to delay Depeche Mode’s start by 45 minutes. Then Thursday which they cancelled because they didn’t prepare for the rain which had been expected for 3 weeks. When you got there it was good - the sound and the bar queues and layout. But I spent 11 hours on buses or waiting for buses over the two days. 

Same thing with Champions League final in Istanbul at the weekend. It was an absolute shambles by all accounts with people walking on the motorway to get to the stadium. Multiple metro changes required etc.

[Bram]

So sorry for Madrid edition, seems like failed experiment. On the other hand, First time experiencing PS Porto and it was super  excellent. The rain quite rough during Kendrick’s set and at Day 2 festival, but all is well.

[Fnmentaluk]

1 hour ago, xxialac said:

Yeah some good points.

I definitely felt a big gulf between Barcelona/Porto and Madrid in attendees.

The former gets much more of an even interest between the 'big names' and the quirky stuff, albeit obviously still geared much more to the former.

Madrid crowd was perfectly nice but felt like they were less about the music and as a result the undercard often played in front of tiny crowds. Not helped by the mass free ticket giveaway of course...

Sorry mass free ticket giveaway, never seen anything about that

[robith]

That Madrid site was always gonna be tough - they were basically trying to pull off D Day four days in a row, but with those number and distances your room for error is nil. Coaches stuck in traffic for ages creates loads of issues with drivers breaks and suddenly you're behind the curve. PS tend to be fairly brutal on cutting events that don't work (one of the South American ones has been completely memory holed) so I'd be stunned if there was a second.

I went on the PS reddit once. Was mind meltingly banal. Every post was just an American going "how do I get my MDMA in?" "Is this enough MDMA?" Etc so I never went back

[xxialac]

27 minutes ago, Fnmentaluk said:

Sorry mass free ticket giveaway, never seen anything about that

Was at a local level. Discussed on the Spanish boards and I also met two groups of Madrilenos who confirmed it. Lots of jokes about it on twitter too etc.

 

[SwallowOrSleepOnTheWetSpot]

How much did all y'all Madrid goers really save in funds, versus hypothetically having attended Barcelona? I wonder how much that edition took away from potential foreign BCN visitors.

[festivalguy97]

Is there any chance that we will get any type of refund/voucher/promotion for the full festival tickets for Madrid for cancelling Thursday? Cause I’m not positive at all about it. And even if they hypothetically offer a discount of 100 euros for the full festival ticket for 2024 edition, I don’t think I want to return unless they change all of the before mentioned negative things about the festival.