Primavera Sound 2019

[daveje]

This was my sixth in a row, they've all been great, this one no exception.

The festival is definitely changing, in good and bad ways.

Good

The New Normal makes it a much more diverse festival, and this is necessary, otherwise the festival just becomes a time capsule for white guy music and will die. Being a white guy myself I love the white guy stuff we're offered, but my festival closers were Jarvis Cocker, Primal Scream, Stereolab, and Roisin Murphy, and all were great, but had their finest moments over 20 years ago. Next year's big announcement is for a band who haven't released any new material in 20 years.

More colour in the audience.

The cups were fun.

Grass in Mordor. My feet are eternally grateful.

It was a lot easier to get around this time.

Seeing the Necks in a big auditorium, two weeks after seeing them in a small club. Seeing Stereolab again. Seeing GBV again. Janelle and Erykah Badu. Seeing all three Japanese girl bands! The Nordic pop perfection that is Sigrid.

Bad

The Pull and Bear shop was an abomination. Moving the traditional stalls to a crappy location to make way for it was horribly disrespectful to people who have been part of the festival for years.

Night Pro was ruined. It's normally one of the highlights of the festival for me, and I didn't go there because the location was awful.

I couldn't understand the point of the OCB Paper Sessions stage when it was used just three times, and one of the bands - CHAI - only played for 20 minutes.

The bars. They need to get a time and motion consultant in, or failing that, someone who isn't a total idiot.

Not seeing the inevitable confrontation between the pro- and anti-Morrissey t-shirt wearers.

[Rico_Pliskin]

There's no such thing as white/black guy music. Music is music and anyone is free to play what style they like.

Unless you have synesthesia you're going to get music through the medium of sound and vibration, not color. 

Statements like that come across pretty regressive for a diverse person like yourself. 

 

Sigrid is pretty cool though and going to check out Janelle next month. 

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Rico_Pliskin

[Gnarler]

47 minutes ago, daveje said:

This was my sixth in a row, they've all been great, this one no exception.

The festival is definitely changing, in good and bad ways.

Good

The New Normal makes it a much more diverse festival, and this is necessary, otherwise the festival just becomes a time capsule for white guy music and will die. Being a white guy myself I love the white guy stuff we're offered, but my festival closers were Jarvis Cocker, Primal Scream, Stereolab, and Roisin Murphy, and all were great, but had their finest moments over 20 years ago. Next year's big announcement is for a band who haven't released any new material in 20 years.

More colour in the audience.

The cups were fun.

Grass in Mordor. My feet are eternally grateful.

It was a lot easier to get around this time.

Seeing the Necks in a big auditorium, two weeks after seeing them in a small club. Seeing Stereolab again. Seeing GBV again. Janelle and Erykah Badu. Seeing all three Japanese girl bands! The Nordic pop perfection that is Sigrid.

Bad

The Pull and Bear shop was an abomination. Moving the traditional stalls to a crappy location to make way for it was horribly disrespectful to people who have been part of the festival for years.

Night Pro was ruined. It's normally one of the highlights of the festival for me, and I didn't go there because the location was awful.

I couldn't understand the point of the OCB Paper Sessions stage when it was used just three times, and one of the bands - CHAI - only played for 20 minutes.

The bars. They need to get a time and motion consultant in, or failing that, someone who isn't a total idiot.

Not seeing the inevitable confrontation between the pro- and anti-Morrissey t-shirt wearers.

I have to agree on a lot here. I absolutely love being so exhausted on my way out but being brought back to life while geeking out about all the merch and prints by the entrance/exit. Really need to get rid of that shop and bring back the tunnel of merch!

Also, I forgot to mention in my review. I got the bus service a couple of times and it changed my festival. Right after Rosalia (I think the biggest crowd of the weekend) me and four friends walked to the far corner of the main stage and got the bus to the beach with no waiting at all. It took ten minutes, saved my feet and meant we could see most of Lizzo!

[MatheauWillis]

Really interesting reading everyones reviews! I just got home last night and I'm straight back to work today so bordering on suicidal. Please forgive all spelling/grammatical errors, my body has grown accustomed to Strawberry Daq's for breakfast at 11am each day, porridge simply hasn't cut it this morning.

I've been the last 4 years and this was by far my favourite (the general consensus in my group of 15 or so), the best festival I've ever been to (including Glastonbury) and I would go as far as saying one of the best weeks of my life! I'm really glad to see that so many other people had a great time.

Some of my experiences:

Queuing:

- I was extremely critical last year. The line up was close to perfect for me but I had the worst time. Getting in was a pisstake, literally every bar was a complete joke - I went to MadCool last year and I thought that was better organised! This year I was in within 5 minutes every day. I didn't queue for longer than 5 minutes for a drink either, the only exception was when a headliner was on a mainstage (I was happy to miss a few Miley songs which I was forced to go to with mates) but I'd just scope out one of the Heineken bag guys to avoid having to go to the bar on most occasions. I vaguely remember Primavera saying that they were hiring more staff for this edition, I'm not entirely sure if it was that OR a smaller capacity/less tickets sold but whatever it was it really worked for me!

Crowd:

- The capacity was much better than any year I've been. I couldn't believe I was literally getting between acts like Solange to Primal Scream in 5/10 minutes, it meant I was able to see more acts than I ever have and I didn't need to prioritise acts on what stages they were on instead of how excited I was to see them. With the progressive nature of the gender split line up it felt like the general audience demographic was a different person, there was a huge LGBTQ+ presence which (without trying to stereotype, if anyone is offended by this I'm sorry!) meant the whole place felt funner and dancier than I've seen it. It was such a good vibe to look around seeing people dancing everywhere in multicoloured kimonos rather than standing glumly holding a pint, wearing a black flag tshirt (not trying to offend but I'm much less scared of the black flag community so come at me). Granted there were the same issues with talking (mainly at the main stages) but I'd either move to a quieter spot or politely ask people to stop, it didn't bother me as much as it normally does. I managed to get a good spot at every stage without having to push through anyone or arrive ridiculously early.

Cup system:

I didn't have the energy to collect them all but that was a cool idea. What was the deal with the 20th cup, was it easy to find or a whole golden ticket thing? I managed to get a cup for the 4 years I've been to take home as a souvenir which was so cool. Also it helped with the littering so much! The whole site seemed a lot cleaner and obviously the real winner here is the planet.

Playing 5 a sides at Mordor:

How did it take them so long to figure out this was essential? Just being able to sit or lay down on the grass listening to someone like Kurt Vile playing was incredible, it was so great for people in our group who weren't too fussed about certain artists, they could just comfortably sit back in the sun enjoying each others company instead of being forced to stand near the front on concrete to be with everyone.

Transport:

- My hotel is a 30 minute walk from the festival so if there's a huge taxi queue I'll just walk instead, can't really weigh in on this.

Some of my favourite acts:

- Alice Phoebe Lou (Mind blowing, she's going to take over the world)

- Ama Lou

- Big Red Machine (Bringing Julien Baker out was a highlight as she was a clash that I couldn't make)

- Boy Pablo (I had no interest in going to see them as they've never stood out to me, but I chummed a friend and honestly it was the most wholesome thing I've ever seen. The synchronised dancing took me out of any hungover funk I was still in!)

- Janelle Monae

- Pond

- Pusha T

- Robyn

- Solange

- Tame Impala

Some other great moments:

- The Pavement announcement at Primavera stage right before Pusha T came on was such a cool touch, me and my friends were going insane!!!! I was pissing myself when they scored out Frank Ocean's eyes.

- Bumped in to both Hatchie and Lucy Dacus at the bar and they were super cool.

- Pond dropping a cover of Ray of Light, sorry to anyone within a 100 metre vicinity who heard me screaming.

- I was considering leaving James Blake as I was a bit bored for that time of the night but the set suddenly burst in to a huge rave

- Having a drunken cigarette with Mac outside the apolo on Wednesday night at 3am was wild, picture below.

- All the completely weird and outrageous people I met along the way, I think I've came home with about 30 new followers on instagram.

Only real negative for me:

I drank Heinneken when at the main stages but generally I prefer spirits. You get really great measures at the fest BUT it seems very over the top to pay 8/9 euros for one! My liver is eternally grateful but my bank balance is not.

Next year:

At the end of 2018's festival a lot of our group dropped out, the rest that did come bought a ticket last minute and rather reluctantly (it took a bit of convincing on my part). Every single one of us this year is a 100% to be back. They did a fantastic job imo and it's only served as making me more upset that I have to wait a whole year to be back!

 

[Rico_Pliskin]

Great Photo.

[daveje]

51 minutes ago, Rico_Pliskin said:

There's no such thing as white/black guy music. Music is music and anyone is free to play what style they like.

Yeah of course, but the history of the festival is basically white-guy fronted guitar bands. Look at the headliners from 10 years ago (one of the nice things about the cups). 13 names, all white, only two fronted by women. Complete turnaround this year: the top 9 names included five women headliners, three of them black.

I was chatting to a black woman from London on the metro, asked her who she was her for. It was Erykah and Janelle, mainly. Another example: I was walking to Mordor and there was a group of black women behind me, and when they heard the band that was currently on (Mac demarco maybe), one of them said "wow, this is white people's music!" You wouldn't have seen them at the festival 10 years ago, there was simply no-one that spoke to them.

[Rico_Pliskin]

Sometimes I think people have become so diverse in their commentary that they don't realize how segregated their comments truly are. 

And then mention a group of black women to validate it, even though they equally just come across as inane saying similar things like 'this is white people music'. 

It's like some sort of two way mirror where only one person can see clarity and the other person just see's a reflection which echoes their idea back to them thus validating it further.

People unwittingly perpetuating racism under the guise of being inclusive and diverse.

I'm in the Upside down now.

That doesn't take away from the fact that i'm glad that people are listening to the music that they like and are enjoying themselves, long may it continue.

P.S it's nothing personal, I can tell from the way you write you're a nice person. I just don't understand some things these days.

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Rico_Pliskin

[kitkat129]

23 hours ago, Gnarler said:

8. TALKING: It was very much the same as always. Even at the smaller stages, unless you were near the front you were surrounded by people talking. The only time it was silent was during Rosalia and Nathy Peluso. I'm not sure what this says about the English and non-speaking fans and artists but it's just something you have to get used to

 

I can't believe everyone here is saying this, I have no idea where you were standing but for me the audience completely ruined Rosalía's concert, I went there after seeing Tim Hecker at the Auditori and I arrived there a couple of minutes after the concert has started, I tried to get through the crowd and get a decent spot but it was impossible, it was full of Spanish people talking everywhere, like literally, in the middle, at the back, everywhere! There wasn't a single person who was actually listening to Rosalía singing, after 20 minutes of changing places I just gave up and went straight to the Seat stage to get a good spot for Solange (I ended up standing in the front row, best decision ever). It was the only concert at the whole festival where I had this problem, all the other shows were enjoyable even when I wasn't at the front, but I'm kinda sad about this as I don't think I'll be able to see Rosalía outside of Spain...

[Gnarler]

18 hours ago, kitkat129 said:

I can't believe everyone here is saying this, I have no idea where you were standing but for me the audience completely ruined Rosalía's concert, I went there after seeing Tim Hecker at the Auditori and I arrived there a couple of minutes after the concert has started, I tried to get through the crowd and get a decent spot but it was impossible, it was full of Spanish people talking everywhere, like literally, in the middle, at the back, everywhere! There wasn't a single person who was actually listening to Rosalía singing, after 20 minutes of changing places I just gave up and went straight to the Seat stage to get a good spot for Solange (I ended up standing in the front row, best decision ever). It was the only concert at the whole festival where I had this problem, all the other shows were enjoyable even when I wasn't at the front, but I'm kinda sad about this as I don't think I'll be able to see Rosalía outside of Spain...

Oh wow, I'm really sorry to hear that. Like you said, everyone I spoke to seemed to find it very quiet.

I arrived about 2 minutes before she came on after running from Loyle Carner and squeezed in so I was near the first bar in the middle to the left hand side and there was a good amount of space. The loudest people there were my friends (who I had so shush constantly). 

Really sorry you didn't get a good experience because she put on a great show. I believe she is playing Somerset House in London this summer but I can't imagine she has many fans in Budapest :(

[ghostdancer1]

plenty of full sets on the youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/PrimaveraSoundTV/videos

[livenstu]

1 hour ago, ghostdancer1 said:

plenty of full sets on the youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/PrimaveraSoundTV/videos

They keep adding more too, hoping for Solange.

[Friend Chicken]

I really need Nina Kraviz' set...there were a couple tracks she played I need ID'd

[ghostdancer1]

 

[xxialac]

RIP Dr John.

Thank you Primavera for bringing him to Europe. What a man.

[livenstu]

10 minutes ago, xxialac said:

RIP Dr John.

Thank you Primavera for bringing him to Europe. What a man.

Very sad news.  I remember his set a few years back being great.

[daveje]

Guardian obituary appropriately has a photo from the Primavera set in 2014. Real privilege to be there.

[xxialac]

5 hours ago, daveje said:

Guardian obituary appropriately has a photo from the Primavera set in 2014. Real privilege to be there.

Was magical. Life doesn't get much better than being at the Rayban in the sun with your friends, looking out over the med and watching Dr John do his glorious thing.

[Boris]

Pre-Early birds on sale on Monday. Anybody know what time? They go very quickly.

 

[Albinoss]

On 6/15/2019 at 12:07 PM, Boris said:

Pre-Early birds on sale on Monday. Anybody know what time? They go very quickly.

 

The Tickets that will be on sale on Monday are the Pre-Early Bird. They will be on sale until July 3rd, and they're only for the 2019 full festival ticket holders (at the cost of 145€). I don't think that they'll run out of those tickets in few hours. It could happen to the Early Bird ones, on sale from July 4th and until they sell out. They'll cost 150€. No sale start time was specified anyway

[Albinoss]

1 hour ago, Albinoss said:

No sale start time was specified anyway

Edit: they'll open sales at 1:00 PM