Primavera Sound 2022

[Chilly Toad]

VIP is a ripoff. The VIP area at the main stages is a bad joke. But understandably, that's a problem of a minority. Crowd control is fear-inducing. I didn't see any barriers except front of the stage at the main stages. That is an accident waiting to happen, and then you don't have lanes to get people out. Or did I just not see them? Black Midi crowd situation also outright dangerous. Plus this Boiler Room thing too loud and too close.

The bars? Hard to believe that the people responsible for this even organised a child's birthday before, so completely lost. I do have pity for the people working there, the guys at fault are sitting elsewhere.

The music? Great, had a real good day, won't let the cheap organizers (hello, Gaby, too bad you sold this out!) ruin my fun.

[RaphPH]

The annoying thing is that it works so well to have two stages at either end of the main arena as that forces fans to pick one of the big main headliners and accept they won't have a good spot for the other. This new way just forces crushes each direction. 

[FloorFiller]

5 minutes ago, RaphPH said:

The annoying thing is that it works so well to have two stages at either end of the main arena as that forces fans to pick one of the big main headliners and accept they won't have a good spot for the other. This new way just forces crushes each direction. 

Yeah much prefer the old stages facing each other layout. I know that the side by side thing is something that’s done at a lot of festivals, but it just made getting in and out of the crowd and repositioning between acts a fucking nightmare.

[MarmK]

I think the fact we had to queue to actually get out of the site at 2am so that we could be scanned (to prevent wristbands being reused?), with the amount of manpower they threw at that rather than using those staff to enhance the experience for the paying customer speaks volumes regarding the properties of the organisers.

 

As an aside there was no soap or toilet paper in the VIP toilets, heaven only knows what the main ones were like.

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by MarmK

[Whatsmelogin]

Anyone know if the trains operate later tonight? 

[MrTobs]

3 minutes ago, FloorFiller said:

Yeah much prefer the old stages facing each other layout. I know that the side by side thing is something that’s done at a lot of festivals, but it just made getting in and out of the crowd and repositioning between acts a fucking nightmare.

Hm, I didn't have any problems moving between the sets and even during the sets. I went to the toilet after Charli, had to wait only 2min in the queue and was back before Tame Impala started without problems. Was standing right where the monitor between the two main stages is and there was still lots of space. Had a good view from the side, not optimal, but secured us good spots in the middle of the stage for Pavement.

[Ohjesus]

the side by side stage thing is rubbish. all the way through pavement there were men, fully lit, taking down tame impala’s rig. 

and then setting up for bad gyal - they even let some pyrotechnics off by accident at one point. 

[pipan]

I realised something is different, when we came to Cupra few minutes before Faye Webster was supposed to start and there was nowhere to sit and quite a lot of people downstairs. I remember the first "Ray-Ban" concerts of the day to be far more sun&chill (= half - empty). And I don't think it was because Faye is a such a big draw.

And then, people were everywhere - no matter which stage, which toilet, which bar, everything was so packed.

I gave up on using my bar credit after two failed attepmts (no one at the bars had a slightest chance what I was talking about) and that was also the moment I gave up on getting (at least a little bit) drunk.

Since then, it was just enjoying the concerts and fighting for water.

The last straw was the "no coffee after midnight" policy.

We called it a day in the middle of 100 gecs - sleepy, thirsty and unable to enjoy otherwise perfectly fine concert. I was shocked, how many people were leaving the festival site before 1 a.m. (we've never done this in any of 2017 - 2019 editions, so maybe it's not unusual at all, but it didn't feel right).

However, on more positive note, TOP 3 of the 1st day concert-wise:

Les Savy Fav - 90 % of it was a show, but what an inventine showmanship! Definitely worth seeing in Apolo next week. Not so sad about losing girl in red anymore!

Charli XCX - so happy she made it even with her recent health issues. Atmosphere was great, songs supercatchy and the show definilety did feel like a main-stage act.

Carolina Durante - perfect sound, great energy, not overcrowded (what an akward thing to say as a positive) - and even though I already started to feel like the day is going to end for me soon, they somehow recharged me, at least for a short while.

What I didn't enjoy as much as I expected were Dinosaur jr. The sound was weird from where I stood and people constantly trying to come through all the possible ways didn't help either.

[Fnmentaluk]

11 minutes ago, Whatsmelogin said:

Anyone know if the trains operate later tonight? 

If you mean metro then no , only Saturday night then run all the time

[jackmako]

36 minutes ago, Whos3000_ said:

Low. No way you can do both them and autechre. 
the previously long, s-shaped line for Kim Gordon just collapsed after a while in a bottleneck. Nobody from the security there to direct the flow of people they just didn’t care. People just arrived got in before people who were there from 40 minutes (who maybe didn’t make it at all). Besides this I haven’t experienced very bad crowding by sacrificing some parts of the sets to move away before people 

Sorry, this was me by accident! I turned up and was just looking for the back of that giant queue as it was so huge, finally joined it at the back, then the whole thing immediately collapsed as everyone rushed to the entrance of the official queue, and I happened to be next to it. I felt terrible for all the people that had queue'd for nowt.

I've been in 2014 and 16 before, and yesterday definitely felt oversold and different - I saw a few Cupra acts, and each one was totally packed out. I don't remember even the headline Cupra acts being so busy in years gone.

I didn't feel safe heading to Pavement whilst the Tame Impala fans swarmed out towards us - I don't see how this works better than the opposite stages. I was getting really freaked out by the tight bottlenecking.

I got on fine with drinks by just using the food court beer men by the toilets - paid a bit more to avoid the ridiculous bar queues. I think I got 6 beers and it was always quick, but my schedule the next 2 days is a lot tighter without time to stop at the food court.

Water fountain queue was ridiculous - I walked up to it without noticing the queue, and had everyone start to kick off at me, but it was an honest mistake. I ended up drinking the water from the toilet sinks all night - maybe not the safest water, but hopefully at least safer than being dehydrated. I must have filled ten of the shite 33cl bottles over the course of the evening.

The music was all good though, at least.

 

[jackmako]

I brought a friend for the first time and she had an awful experience with the queueing 40 mins for a beer, queueing to leave the festival, overcrowding etc - I felt bad as it wasn't how I sold the festival to her.

[daviddaviddaviddavid]

40 minutes ago, Petertwo said:

What are peoples views on drinking the tap water in the bathrooms…? Asking for a friend

Did this all night and am fine today

[evilduck]

This is my first Primavera and I was really sad to see how much of a shit show it was. I’ve been to many Glastos so used to huge crowds and millions of stages, but this feels dangerous and chaotic. We resorted to drinking water from the toilet taps. Had a nice time watching Les Savy Fav and Pavement but kind of dreading today. 
 

On the up side, we got lucky with the tram timing and it was not packed and a nice comfortable journey home!

[Familiar2billions]

5 minutes ago, jackmako said:

I brought a friend for the first time and she had an awful experience with the queueing 40 mins for a beer, queueing to leave the festival, overcrowding etc - I felt bad as it wasn't how I sold the festival to her.

Exactly the same, me and my missus had really raved about it to friends who have come for the first time... Yet it's a completely different experience. The sad thing is, most of those friends have already said they won't bother coming again, yet when we first came we fell in love with the place. If this is the future of Primavera I can't see myself returning either. 

You can't just oversell a festival like that without proper planning, it's fucking dangerous and irresponsible!

[rzwodezwo]

Am I the only one who had a good time last night? 😢

[Toooom97]

Hi everyone!

I don't think I read this on the previous comment but did everybody had to get out of the Auditori after the Kim Gordon show? Or was it possible to stay in? I'm a bit concern about the Low/Autechre situation, can't see myself just walk out of the Auditori after Low and having to queue again to see Autechre...

[spoiledff7]

Just woke up and so incredibly disappointed, I don’t understand how they can solve this. It’s clearly been oversold massively & even with adding 3x the bar staff it won’t solve the capacity issue.

 

I cannot BELIEVE there are not barriers at that main stage set up - feels like an accident waiting to happen. To the person who said that it felt uncomfortable arriving for Faye Webster I couldn’t agree more. Should be the normal sleepy chill set of the festival & already felt like something was wrong.

I hate to say it too but the atmosphere is totally different - where have all the a-holes appeared from? I really hope they solve issues by weekend 2 but I am struggling to think what they do.

We will be completely changing our plans today to just stay away from the main stage areas. I cannot fathom what they have done to that bit;

[DDave]

I'm in the minority of thinking the main stages we're actually alright. 

Due to the bar situation it felt like I only saw about 4 bands. Fred Again probably the pick of the bunch for me, he was really happy to be there. 

I genuinely didn't know it was Tame playing Last Nite, I thought they'd finished and it was the festival taking the piss out of us by playing the record over the loudspeakers. 

 

[Toooom97]

12 minutes ago, rzwodezwo said:

Am I the only one who had a good time last night? 😢

I did too! Managed to see everything I wanted from Kim Gordon to Otoboke Beaver (who were excellent by the way!) but I fully understand the concerns of everybody. I was alone, I brought a one-liter water bottle and my own food with me so it saved me from wasting hours queuing...!

[yaniv297]

1 minute ago, Toooom97 said:

I did too! Managed to see everything I wanted from Kim Gordon to Otoboke Beaver (who were excellent by the way!) but I fully understand the concerns of everybody. I was alone, I brought a one-liter water bottle and my own food with me so it saved me from wasting hours queuing...!

Did you have any problems getting the water in? I imagine you can't hide a one liter bottles easily. 

[Nicklord]

38 minutes ago, Ohjesus said:

the side by side stage thing is rubbish. all the way through pavement there were men, fully lit, taking down tame impala’s rig. 

and then setting up for bad gyal - they even let some pyrotechnics off by accident at one point. 

Some festivals like Graspop have 2 stages and they put either a curtain over the whole thing (for headliners) or 3-4 meters high

 

[rzwodezwo]

5 minutes ago, Toooom97 said:

I did too! Managed to see everything I wanted from Kim Gordon to Otoboke Beaver (who were excellent by the way!) but I fully understand the concerns of everybody. I was alone, I brought a one-liter water bottle and my own food with me so it saved me from wasting hours queuing...!

I think it got lucky with my gigs (Charli XCX, Fred Again, Hannah Diamond), none of which felt too crowded. Bars were a shitshow of course but I remember them always having been kinda terrible so it didn’t feel *that* different for me.

Edited June 3, 2022 by rzwodezwo

[Toooom97]

1 minute ago, yaniv297 said:

Did you have any problems getting the water in? I imagine you can't hide a one liter bottles easily. 

When I went through the bag check I got my bottle out of my bag to make the search easier and the security guy didn't check the size of the bottle!

[FloorFiller]

I barely got my bag looked at when coming in, so much so that the guy just asked if I had any water, I said no and he just took my word for it and let me through. Gonna try and sneak in a big bottle today now that I’ve seen what the water fountain situation is like. 

[Rhak]

I had to throw away mine because it was 500ml. Where on earth can you find 330ml nowadays 

Hope they change that policy today 

might hop over to decathlon to buy a camelbag