cruïlla barcelona

Only 1% are internationals, while Barcelona residents account for 61% of festival-goers

The event returns to the city on July 8, 9 and 10 with mostly local acts performing

Masks, rapid testing, and sitting down, health measures will be a main feature of all gigs

No less than 360 festivals per year take place in Catalonia, 250 of them in summer

Festival Cruïlla Barcelona has unveiled more artists that will perform at the seventh edition of the celebration, which is to be held on the 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th of July. The newly confirmed artists in the festival´s line-up are Robert Plant, along with The Sensational Space Shifters, Crystal Fighters, Cat Power, Skunk Anansie and Esperanza Spalding, amongst many others. However, one of the most outstanding artists confirmed is Robert Plant, the iconic voice of Led Zeppelin. He will perform the album ‘Lullaby…and the Ceaseless Roar’ for the first time in Spain with the accompaniment of The Sensational Space Shifters. The festival has also announced its daily concert schedule, and that it is keeping its pass price at 90 euros. 

For the last few weeks, the word 'Cruïlla' has been monopolising conversations with my friends. This started to happen since we decided to go to Cruïlla Festival 2015, a relatively young Barcelona music festival taking place from the 10^th to the 12^th of July at Parc del Fòrum (an enormous setup on the seafront). As we are all foreigners not yet proficient in this country's language, for us the word 'Cruïlla' became like a mantra: we kept repeating it, ignoring the fact that it had real meaning by itself. We later found out that it is a Catalan term for 'crossroads'. Indeed, this music event is conceived as a real place of encounter not just among artists coming from all over the world (45 in total this year), but especially among people coming to enjoy the music (46,000 overall). As performances vary greatly in style, very different crowds intermingle, providing the event with a pleasantly eclectic flavour and a tolerant soul.

The eighth edition of Festival Cruïlla Barcelona will run Friday through Sunday at Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona. The spectacle features an eclectic lineup of 45 artists, 18 of which hail from Spain. In addition to the three nights of music, there will be performances of castellers – a Catalan tradition of building human towers – along with displays by famous graffiti artists and a selection of music documentaries. Among the main acts are Kendrick Lamar, FFS (Franz Ferdinand + Sparks), Ms. Lauryn Hill, Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley and Jamie Cullum.

The 5th edition of the Catalan capital’s music festival ‘Cruïlla Barcelona’ kicked off with Iggy & the Stooges, Nneka, Gogol Bordello, Julieta Venegas, La Pegatina, M.I.A, The Specials, Cypress Hills, 2manydjs, Sharon Jones, Amadou & Mariam, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Gustavo Gordera being some of the 35 artists who will play their music from Friday to Saturday night.

A total of 40 bands will play in this summer music festival in Barcelona. The ‘Primavera Sound’, the ‘Sonar’, and ‘Cruïlla Barcelona’ are the most important indie, pop and electronic music festivals in the Catalan capital.