Primavera Sound Festival 2024 Review – A Return to Form
If you can believe it, it’s been eight years since we last attended Primavera Sound Festival. Since then, the festival has both grown in popularity and seemingly shrunk in physicality but 2024 marked a notable evolution in its post-pandemic format, transitioning to a streamlined, single-weekend event. This change aimed to address issues from previous years, such as water shortages, overcrowding, and weather-related cancellations looks to have been successful as the the new format enhanced the festival’s focus and charm, ensuring a more enjoyable experience for attendees compared to the unorganised reports of yesteryears.
Held at the picturesque Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona, Primavera Sound’s unique seafront location provided a stunning backdrop for the festival. Known for its inclusive and friendly atmosphere, the festival continued to be a safe and welcoming space, especially for its LGBTQ+ audience. Notable was the festival’s bravery to make it’s stance on the ongoing genocide in Gaza clear with a NYC-DUBLINesque portal into the warzone at the entrance.
Primavera Sound 2024’s line-up, featuring big-name headliners, talented DJs, and critically acclaimed artists across multiple genres.
While the weather might have been against them, PJ Harvey and Mitski delivered impressive sets despite to the background echo of thunder and lightning.
Lana Del Rey came out late and unfortunately her set failed to make up for her tardiness. While she played some of her more notable hits like Video Games, the remainder of her sleepy set didn’t quite get the crowd going as one might hope.
SZA delivered a fun, pirate-esque performance of her greatest hits and very much proved why she’s appearing as top billing on the festival circuit all across europe this year.
Several other artists left a lasting impression on the audience. Ethel Cain’s anthemic performance captivated festival-goers, while Barry Can’t Swim, Sofia Kourtesis, and Romy delivered memorable late-night dance sets. Lankum’s indoor performance was particularly potent, highlighting their unique folk style, and Shabaka and William Basinski offered atmospheric and special sets in the indoor Auditori stage.
Our standout of the festival has to go to Troye Sivan. All singing, all dancing, all sexy performance while early in the evening was just what the festival called for to get attendees warmed up for a night of dancing. While he didn’t pull Charli XCX out on stage as we had hoped, all was forgiven when he ended on his showstopping smash-hit ‘Rush’.
Speaking of Charli XCX, she put on one hell of a show. With a U.S. arena tour on the horizon and an album currently (somewhat controvertially) sitting at number 2 in the album charts, Charli XCX proved her ability to command large stages with a high-energy late-night set that blended rave-era songs and contemporary hits.
Mannequin Pussy, Amyl And The Sniffers, and Beth Gibbons provided intense and emotionally charged performances. Deftones balanced moody vibes with heavy tunes, while The Armed delivered a chaotic and enjoyable late-night set. Scowl and Militarie Gun brought energetic punk and hardcore sets, and Bikini Kill closed the festival with a high-energy, fun-filled performance that left attendees on a high note.
All in all – Primavera Sound 2024 was a clear success. While we don’t wish to dwell on the mistakes of past years, it’s important to acknowledge the improvement made. While yes, the festival ground is certainly smaller – it’s only to the benefit of the whole experience. The festival’s return to a single-weekend format, combined with its diverse programming, show stopping performances and all round stronger commitment to being organised and safe, have propelled the festival to FAULTLess heights and we can’t wait to see what they have in store next year.