Primavera Sound 2023 to be held in both Barcelona and Madrid
Decision comes after festival organizers had threatened to leave Catalonia over hosting costs
Primavera Sound 2023 will be a two-weekend event once again, but this time the festival will take place partly in Barcelona as well as Madrid.
The decision comes after organizers had been threatening to leave Catalonia entirely after some disputes with local authorities over the costs of hosting one of the world’s biggest music festivals in the Parc del Fòrum site.
Next year’s Primavera Sound will be held on June 1-3 in Barcelona and June 8-10 in Madrid. The event in the Spanish capital will be held in Ciudad del Rock in Arganda del Rey, around a 45-minute drive from the city center.
According to festival director Gabi Ruiz when speaking with La Vanguardia in December, renting the Barcelona venue is now "17 times" more expensive than before, and he has previously complained of the council "not making any efforts" to find a solution.
The Primavera a la Ciutat midweek programme of gigs and events organized in parallel to the main festival will still go ahead in both cities.
“For many reasons, this double headquarters will not surprise those who know the history of Primavera Sound,” a statement on the festival website reads, which also describes the move to Madrid as “a step forward as logical as it is natural.”
Primavera Club events have been organized in both Barcelona and Madrid in recent autumns, while the entity has also opened up offices in the Spanish capital recently.
“The arrival in Madrid is not only the latest chapter in our long and close relationship with the city, but also the first step of all that is yet to come: for communications and connections, for the background, of a Primavera Sound that in 2023 will start in Barcelona and end in Madrid.”
Barcelona welcomes move
Jordi Martí, Barcelona councilor for culture, sees the decision as a "good solution" to sustain the double weekend format, despite the fact that the city's mayor, Ada Colau, had already guaranteed them permission to maintain the model.
"We have taken many steps so that this could be the case, but they have finally chosen two cities. We wish them all the luck in the world," Martí said.
Speaking to the media, Martí views the festival's move as a "reaffirmation" of the relationship with Barcelona, which allows them to reconfigure themselves to adapt to the new rules of the international music scene. The councilor believes the move opens the door to Barcelona hosting further editions. "I am convinced that we will have twenty more years" of Primavera Sound in Barcelona, he concludes.
“I know there are people who think that anything that happens in Madrid is bad for us, but I don't agree,” he added.
In December, Martí had already outlined the council's position that "Primavera benefits the city too much and vice versa for us to not reach an agreement." The comments were made in response to Gabi Ruiz’s La Vanguardia interview in the same month in which he contemplated leaving Catalonia altogether.
According to Martí, the council had only agreed to a 2-weekend festival in 2022 because the previous two editions had been canceled, although he said it would not be a "red line" preventing both parties from reaching an agreement.
The councilor did not address allegations that rent was now "17 times" more expensive, but said that if the festival did end up leaving, "it wouldn't be because of the rent."
Primavera Sound 2022
Primavera Sound will return to Barcelona in 2022 bigger than ever after calling off the 2020 and 2021 editions, with over 400 artists performing over the course of the first two weekends in June.
Headliners include the likes of Tame Impala, The Strokes, Jamie XX, Jorja Smith, or Megan Thee Stallion.
The festival will also travel to Santiago, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Los Angeles, and Porto this year.