Primavera 2018

[OneLittleFish]

Thought Arctic Monkeys were excellent last night. Really impressed.

[JedTheHumanoid]

5 hours ago, lighthouse said:

I'd love to read some reviews. ? 

What were the highlights (and disappointments)? 

- Nick Cave. Saw him a few months ago on the Skeleton Tree tour. This one was different, less emotional, but still great

- Chvrches

- Charlotte Gainsbourg. The surprise of the festival for me. Expected something more laid-back, calmer, and got the complete opposite.

- Car seat headrest. I was afraid when I saw them on mango, but they managed the big stage great. Really grown from the set two years ago (which was also great). Too bad it was that short

- Belle and Sebastian

- Sparks

- Bjork started great but after about 45 minutes I had it. There's only so much flute a man can take... Too bad she didnt add more oldies (Hello ms. Bjork, remember you made a masterpiece called Homogenic??)

 

On the disappointing side I have to say fourtet. Maybe the lack of visuals, maybe it was me tired and overwhelmed by the day, but something didn't work.

I also don't like Primavera Bits. Its too far and takes too long to go there. It's  fine if you plan to spend some time there, but for one show it's annoying. I missed Jon Hopkins because of the line on the brodge

 

[puckno]

Four highlights for me aka diceroll 6: Nick Cave, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Slowdive and Deerhunter

[D-Low]

This is completely my personal preference so holds no basis on the rest of anyone else's experience but I can safely say I will definitely not be returning next year. 

This year was my first and as much as I tried to get in to the Primavera experience I just couldn't. 

It seems a festival of queues. I thought Reading was bad queuing to get in and again to the arena but here there is three lines just to get on site here. Maybe I arrived at the wrong time each day but it took a good 30-40mins to move through each time. Then not to mention the queues at the bars. Horrific on times. They were so understaffed - most Heineken tents having 1 person per 2 pop up tents. Friday I gave up drinking as I'd sobered up I waited so long. It was nice they had lots of people selling beer walking around but a con it cost more. 

The traffic system is shocking. They need a real look at this. When leaving the seat/mango stages why can't they have a one way system in place? It was gridlock (and quite dangerous) until the security decided to close the road and send everyone back around the right hand pathway. Then the chaos trying to get over to Primavera Bits. I missed most of Jon Hopkins stuck on the bridge and Fri was even worse. 

The sound was massively hit and miss. It sounded really good for Lorde at Seat but Arctic Monkeys on the Mango stage was shit. Why so quiet? And who was in charge of scheduling? Big delays from Haim (pushed back twice) and Skepta. Also why was a lot DJs on so early - Four Tet and Seth Troxler. Would've been so better suited to the night.

Whilst I saw a lot over the weekend the gaps between acts I did see was really long, up to two hours in some places of just hanging around. Plus the layout wasn't the best - lucky I'm fit and can handle the walking massive distances. 

Outside the festival the amount of dodgy people shoving beer cans in your face really got on my nerves. You couldn't step two feet from "beer water beer water". 

At risk of this being one long moan, the only plus points I could say would be the toilets being very good, no queues and cleanest I've seen at a festival. The National, Chvrches, Haim, Lorde, Public Service Broadcasting, Jon Hopkins, The War on Drugs, Skepta all good. 

Edited June 3, 2018 by D-Low

[tjrant]

3 hours ago, D-Low said:

This is completely my personal preference so holds no basis on the rest of anyone else's experience but I can safely say I will definitely not be returning next year. 

This year was my first and as much as I tried to get in to the Primavera experience I just couldn't. 

It seems a festival of queues. I thought Reading was bad queuing to get in and again to the arena but here there is three lines just to get on site here. Maybe I arrived at the wrong time each day but it took a good 30-40mins to move through each time. Then not to mention the queues at the bars. Horrific on times. They were so understaffed - most Heineken tents having 1 person per 2 pop up tents. Friday I gave up drinking as I'd sobered up I waited so long. It was nice they had lots of people selling beer walking around but a con it cost more. 

The traffic system is shocking. They need a real look at this. When leaving the seat/mango stages why can't they have a one way system in place? It was gridlock (and quite dangerous) until the security decided to close the road and send everyone back around the right hand pathway. Then the chaos trying to get over to Primavera Bits. I missed most of Jon Hopkins stuck on the bridge and Fri was even worse. 

The sound was massively hit and miss. It sounded really good for Lorde at Seat but Arctic Monkeys on the Mango stage was shit. Why so quiet? And who was in charge of scheduling? Big delays from Haim (pushed back twice) and Skepta. Also why was a lot DJs on so early - Four Tet and Seth Troxler. Would've been so better suited to the night.

Whilst I saw a lot over the weekend the gaps between acts I did see was really long, up to two hours in some places of just hanging around. Plus the layout wasn't the best - lucky I'm fit and can handle the walking massive distances. 

Outside the festival the amount of dodgy people shoving beer cans in your face really got on my nerves. You couldn't step two feet from "beer water beer water". 

At risk of this being one long moan, the only plus points I could say would be the toilets being very good, no queues and cleanest I've seen at a festival. The National, Chvrches, Haim, Lorde, Public Service Broadcasting, Jon Hopkins, The War on Drugs, Skepta all good. 

Easy bro.

Looks like we enjoyed most of the same bands. Will be lucky to see such a good line up elsewhere.

[Guy Incognito]

Incredible festival with incredible music. Sure, there are some small downsides but you get that at every festival. This was my second year after coming in 2016 but the sheer quality of bands is unparalleled. 

Also,  bands seem to love playing here which makes SO much difference. Domt take it for granted, we have attended one of the best festivals in Europe. 

[daveje]

The festival is definitely changing. Just had a post-mortum with a friend who’s been going as long as me (this was my fifth) and he’s saying that he doesn’t feel like he’s in the festival’s demographic any longer. I’ve always felt that for the non-Spanish fans it’s been a music geek’s nirvana, but it’s clearly going more mainstream, and getting people who’d normally be at Glastonbury, for instance.

There’s always a tension between being there primarily for the music and mainly being there for a good time with your mates, and the primavera audience has usually been on one side of that. This year, there were far too many concerts filled with people chatting and treating the band just as background noise, especially in Ray-Ban, and Mordor. The amount of loud chatter during the quieter parts of Nick Cave’s set was horribly disrespectful, especially.

Having said all that, still the best festival around. Highlights for me were Sparks, James Holden, Lift to Experience, and IDLES. And Shellac, goes without saying. I loved the new Hidden Stage and the changes to Night Pro, plus the new access route along the water.

And Adidas is still the best and coolest stage.

[D-Low]

Don't get me wrong it definitely had some good points. But the negatives far outweighed my experience sadly. I guess I'm just used to Glastonbury and nothing has come close to matching my enjoyment of that. Not that I tried to compare it, I just felt a lot of walking, bottle neck stage exits, waiting around and queuing, terrible sound and people who wanted to talk through all the sets to be less enjoyable.

There's other EU festivals this year with matchable line ups for my tastes (Mad Cool, Sziget) so the line up wasn't the biggest draw. I went based on friends recommendations but it sadly didn't live up. I've enjoyed my stay in Barcelona though, it's a lovely city!

[thewayiam]

1 hour ago, tjrant said:

Easy bro.

Looks like we enjoyed most of the same bands. Will be lucky to see such a good line up elsewhere.

That all depends what you like.

[scatteredscreens]

Sad to hear the negativity, was quite interested in the idea of heading to Primavera next year but this is putting me off. 

[Divein]

I think once you start comparing places to Glastonbury then you’re only ever going to have one winner.

It was my first time this year and I’ve had an amazing time despite only really wanting to see 2 bands. 

Its a really cool place, and I loved the views and different stage layout and features. Everyone’s really chilled out and I didn’t really have any trouble getting anywhere. 

I’ve learnt over the years that if you give your self an extra ten minutes to either hang back or leave early then you’ll beat most rushes.

My only major gripe was the bars, they never seemed that busy but always took forever. But I don’t think the bar staff were ever in a rush to serve people. However, a few cash only bars around site would make it better. Trying to get a drink over the bridge at night was a nightmare.

It also took us 1 and a half hours to get a taxi on Friday, which was hell on earth. But there’s not a great deal we can do about that.

i was also very shocked they run out of water at most places on Saturday night. With only 3 stand pipes on site, and the no bottle tops thing I’d thought they’d do a bit more to ensure people could get water if needed.

But yeah, fantastic festival and would try to go again but stay closer to the site.

 

[xxialac]

48 minutes ago, D-Low said:

Don't get me wrong it definitely had some good points. But the negatives far outweighed my experience sadly. I guess I'm just used to Glastonbury and nothing has come close to matching my enjoyment of that. Not that I tried to compare it, I just felt a lot of walking, bottle neck stage exits, waiting around and queuing, terrible sound and people who wanted to talk through all the sets to be less enjoyable.

There's other EU festivals this year with matchable line ups for my tastes (Mad Cool, Sziget) so the line up wasn't the biggest draw. I went based on friends recommendations but it sadly didn't live up. I've enjoyed my stay in Barcelona though, it's a lovely city!

Respect your opinion but confused about the comment about walking distances. You mention Glastonbury but that’s infinitely worse!

And talkers are a major nuisance everywhere these days.

In 10 years of going, bar queues have always been so much better than all the UK festivals I’ve attended. I heard it was bad by the Rayban and Adidas late this year but there are a tonne of other bars.

And if you don’t want to queue to get in either get there earlyish or get VIP. Never queued in all the years.

You’re right about there being some sound problems though in previous years it’s generally been great though Mordor has had issues.

[xxialac]

1 hour ago, daveje said:

The festival is definitely changing. Just had a post-mortum with a friend who’s been going as long as me (this was my fifth) and he’s saying that he doesn’t feel like he’s in the festival’s demographic any longer. I’ve always felt that for the non-Spanish fans it’s been a music geek’s nirvana, but it’s clearly going more mainstream, and getting people who’d normally be at Glastonbury, for instance.

There’s always a tension between being there primarily for the music and mainly being there for a good time with your mates, and the primavera audience has usually been on one side of that. This year, there were far too many concerts filled with people chatting and treating the band just as background noise, especially in Ray-Ban, and Mordor. The amount of loud chatter during the quieter parts of Nick Cave’s set was horribly disrespectful, especially.

Having said all that, still the best festival around. Highlights for me were Sparks, James Holden, Lift to Experience, and IDLES. And Shellac, goes without saying. I loved the new Hidden Stage and the changes to Night Pro, plus the new access route along the water.

And Adidas is still the best and coolest stage.

Got to agree with all of this

[TapeRecorder]

My first year and loved every second. Favourite festival I've been to with friendly people and my personal favourite lineup for the last couple years, only down point was the bars but this isn't a biggy and if timed right, was easily sorted. Feel lucky to experience an array of great bands, and always felt spoilt with choice with who to see at times. Until next year, and hopefully years after. 

[duckula]

Ariel Pink’s set tonight was spectacularly shambolic, Flat Worms made up for it in spades though.

[Swanmob]

First year too and absolutely loved it. The line-up was as good as you'll get. The talking through sets was irritating but I usually hung away from the back of crowds to avoid it. I don't understand why people do this. This is the only problem i had with the festival. The run of bands slowdive, grizzly bear, deerhunter, beach house on Saturday was music heaven for me. I will be trying to get back to this festival in the future. 

[James_Glasto_LDn]

Does anyone know where lost property would be at this point (Monday morning)? Flying this afternoon but wouldn’t mind going to check if any of the numerous items I lost are there. I see the website mentions guardia after the festival has ended? 

[Gnarler]

5 hours ago, duckula said:

Ariel Pink’s set tonight was spectacularly shambolic, Flat Worms made up for it in spades though.

This brings me bitter sadness. Missed their set last night because my girlfriend couldn't deal with crowds any longer. They didn't give a great performance?

[Memory Man]

im shocked about the bar comments. Went last year, but not this year, and can hardly remember ever having to que much for a drink.

it is definitely worth staying close by to the festival, I just dont understand people who stay in central barceonla as I have never been able to easily get a taxi late at night and we always stay too late to get any public transport (it only runs 24 hours one day out of three/four i think) and to add to that you now have a high quality daytime program that you can't just dip in and out of if you are staying miles away.

the lineup didnt appeal to my tastes this year and therefore it was ruled out very early on but if they had a lineup I really liked, like 2017, I wouldnt hesitate to return.

obviously as a festival it is only about the music as there is nothing else to do or amuse yourself with outside of that, which is really its only downside. but if you dig into the lineup and find stuff you enjoy I have rarely found myself with long gaps. Plus you can never go wrong with a visit to Barcelona as its a fantastic city to holiday in even if there was no festival. My friends treat it like a holiday with a fest on the side and from that standpoint it will always appeal.

Edited June 4, 2018 by Memory Man

[The Martini Police]

5 minutes ago, Memory Man said:

im shocked about the bar comments. Went last year, but not this year, and can hardly remember ever having to que much for a drink.

 

It was really bad, especially Saturday. My first time at Primavera but on Saturday night within a few minutes I saw several arguments break out over who was next and a guy punch the bar and start screaming in spanish at the staff. I ended up buying myself 2 drinks and then stopped drinking for a while because it wasn't worth it as you missed so much music. The queues weren't even THAT big, bars were just severely understaffed. 

By the time the queues died down a bit at 3am, 4 different bars I went to had run out of rum, vodka and cider as well as most mixers. You'd hope both problems can easily be solved for next year though, seemed very well organised apart from the bars and the bridge situation. 

[xxialac]

For my money, by far the best thing the festival could ever do is scrap the VIP front-of-stage privilege....but (plot twist) keep the same barriers and security. Have VIP as comfortable sit down areas to the side and fancy food and toilets - it's enough. 

When you buy a Primavera pass you have to make a clear decision whether you will be there to focus on the music or to talk with friends. If you say music, you are given a pass that allows scanned entrance to the front with a *very clear warning* before you buy it that you will lose the rights associated with that ticket if you breach its terms (i.e. talk like a selfish motherfucker) 

People in the 'music section' will then be in a bigger majority and feel more supported to police any offenders. Won't get rid of the problem altogether of course but the stigma of being caught with the 'wrong' ticket would definitely reduce it.

[Olivedal 1904]

Mogwai and Slowdive were in a league of their own of what I saw during this weekend. Slowdive was the best outdoor show I have seen in several years, so loud and great sound quality and the band seemed to be super excited to be performing. 

 Lift to Experience, Deerhunter, Ride and Ty Segall were also all absolutely magnificent. Wolf Parade, War on Drugs and Zeal and Ardor about as good as expected. Twilight Sad did a great performance as mentioned but would have expected them to be louder, was my first time seeing them. 

The queues for the bars were a little bit worse this year but still possible to avoid at most times by choosing a different bar. Managed to oversleep and miss my flight back home for the second consecutive year. Need to learn and not book the 9 am Sunday flight. The worst part is how fast a weekend like this goes by. 

[Ildavo]

Was my 7th Primavera and loved it as much as ever. Been reading this board for months now, but finally signing up!

Found bar queues pretty good overall. Only a long wait if you go to a bar next to where someone is playing. A lot quicker just going on a small detour as there are plenty of bars around. Worse for me was by Ray Ban during Grizzly Bear. I didn’t plan well enough so just skipped a drink watching them.

As for transport, never had a problem staying in the centre and getting to and from the festival. I just got the purple line to La Pau and headed on the orange line from there. Can get a seat all the way to forum.  On the way back, I just got the shuttle bus to Placa de Catalunya.  Always got straight on and doesn’t take long.

i kind of wish the bands would shift to being a couple hours earlier so the headliners start during sunset.  Find the atmosphere even better when the sun is shining, plus it’s easier to navigate crowds in daylight and it’s not so claustrophobic.

[Albinoss]

I think a great aspect of Primavera is that you can live it in many different ways. You can see great big bands on huge stages as well as smaller beautiful bands on intimate venues, plus all the genre variety, number of stages, etc. You have plenty of choices to make your own personal festival. This was my sixth year and even if line up wise wasn't my favorite, I've enjoyed it more than precedent editions. Unlikely this past years, this time I've managed to see the shows at day pro (I was staying in an apartment in Raval and CCCB was just around the corner - BTW, no problem with transports staying there, I took the metro or the bus to catalunya), enjoyed Dixon and Stern at Auditori, saw a lot of bands until late without to get too tired. 

I've had no problem with bars queues (except for Wednesday), it's a matter of choosing the right timing or the right bar. 

The only complains are the chatter under the mordor stages, but it occurred to me just during a part of the Nick Cave show, since I avoided those stages for clashes (didn't catch the Breeders) or for lack of interest. Adidas was my favorite stage. 

I found too difficult to get to primavera bits, so I went there just once and skipped it for the rest of the festival. 

Overall a great experience. I hope to be able to come back next year. 

[Steph U]

On 6/3/2018 at 1:56 PM, lighthouse said:

I'd love to read some reviews. ? 

What were the highlights (and disappointments)? 

This was my 4th Primavera and still enjoyed it despite the same probs like all years before (talkers and long distances). 

Highlights (in descending order):
- Mike D: I've been a Beastie Boys fan for a quarter of a century and never got to see them live, so at least seeing one of them was a lifelong dream come true. Jumping up and down in the second row, yes yes ya.
- Ride at Hidden Stage. Great sound in an intimate setting. Could switch of my constantly worried mind and let the psychedelic sound take over.
- Björk: not a fan of Utopia but it worked tremendously well in this transcendental live show. Was so mesmerized I forgot time and place.
- Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever with the sunset and a salty sea breeze: wonderful.
- Nick Cave: obviously!
- Jorja Smith: that voice!
- Slowdive: another magical sunset show - plus feet-friendly seating on the Primavera hill
- Ross From Friends: nerdy Balearic beats at 4am was exactly what I needed then
- Josh T. Pearson: the new Hidden setting doesn't disappoint. Plus he was "funnier/friendlier/chattier" that I thought he would be (expected this uber-cool Cowboy persona, hehe)
- Nils Frahm: the last song he played, Says: how the sound over an enternity gradually transforms from very quiet and sparse to this bombastic wall of sound
- Sparks: didn't expect them to put on such a fun show. I saw them by chance, so a good surprise.
- not to forget the amazing food options. In previous years we used to eat in town but because of wanting to start with earlier concerts this year we opted for the on-site stalls and were positively surprised. For quite reasonable prices you get amazingly fresh food. Especially loved the Poké Bowls.

Disappointments:
- Missing too many bands because of clashes
- John Talabot: wrong expectations. The word "disco" should have been a giveaway, but from his records I'd expected a house DJ set and not a 70's inspired Abba-esque sound. My fault. Even more gutted now missing out on Public Service Broadcasting because it took us forever crossing back over that bridge from the Bits area
- generally the Apolo shows. I sadly missed the Sunday ones because of having to head back home, but the Wednesday shows were too electro. I generally like that genre, but I would have preferred the odd "heavier" band thrown in (saw Shellac, Sleaford Mods, Japandroids etc. there in previous years). The heavily praised Shanti Celeste had a sloppy set in my opinion (the crowd even gasped at one especially botched transition) and we left after 15 mins listening to Kedr Levanski because the sound was really bad, you almost couldn't hear her singing.

For those with:
- bar problems: I found out that smiling at the staff helped me being served before others. ?
- transport problems: we're always staying in central Barcelona (prefer this to a close-to-festival-location because of the atmosphere and the shopping/sightseeing-possibilities) and rent bicycles for the 4/5 days. From Barceloneta/Born it's an easy 15/20-minute ride along the beachfront (free sunrise at 6am after a DJ Koze set!). No bus queues, no taxi waits and fair prices, too. Plus you get to have the bike all the time and can use it during the daytime to cruise round the city. Perfect!