Rain cancels all headline acts on Primavera Sound day one

Heavy downpours ruined the first day of Primavera Sound in Parc del Fòrum. 

None of the scheduled headliners, Massive Attack, Doja Cat, and Bad Gyal, were able to perform. Mac DeMarco and Alex G also had their performances suspended. 

The rainfall particularly affected the area where the two main stages are located, where concerts were suspended from as early as 9pm.

Primavera Sound have announced that "on Monday, details will be provided regarding the refund process for Thursday's tickets, the cost of which will be refunded."

Information was not updated until 11pm when the festival announced that Massive Attack would perform at 12.30am. However, this was later cancelled too due to "weather and technical" conditions, with thousands of attendees already waiting in the area.

At a dreary Parc del Fòrum, the only information shared with festival-goers by 9pm were the signs next to the stages announcing temporary suspensions of main stage gigs, also asking attendees to remain calm.

Meanwhile, thousands of people wandered around the venue without knowing what was happening, taking shelter under the pergolas where the food court is located.

Online, many fans voiced their anger at the lack of communication from the festival. 

Fans were unhappy about a lack of information about cancellations, and also criticized that the public were told at various points to leave the festival entirely, before being told to come back as gigs were rescheduled for later in the evening, only for all headline acts to ultimately be called off. 

"You could be prepared for this. It wasn’t a storm," one person wrote in an Instagram comment on the Primavera Sound account. "It was raining for some hours. There’s a lot of festivals in Europe that sustain rain. If you are a festival with dignity, you’ll refund your fans." 

"If you can use stage screens for advertisements, you could use them for announcements," another fan denounced. 

One person who says they've worked in crisis communications and media for years, including festivals and live events, said that Primavera Sound's handling was "abysmal." "Your strategy (or lack thereof) will have done SO much damage to long-standing fans of Prima, of people who were thinking about PS27, and it could have been so easily avoided. As a long-term Prima fan, I am so disappointed. Happy to have a conversation about how to make it better because this was NOT it. 

"Even my ex had better communication skills," another fan pointed out. 

Despite the miserable weather later in the night, the afternoon scheduling was still able to go ahead, with concerts from the likes of Oklou, Blood Orange, Clara Viñals, and Ravyn Lenae delighting the audiences who were there early enough to enjoy part of the day.