Primavera Sound 2024

[Whos3000_]

PS is the leading festival in the area for that kind of acts, if not the whole Europe. MA are playing the weekend after. If they wanted them very bad as was the case with SZA, for example, they would have likely won them over other festivals. 
ofc we don’t know everything but I can’t see why MA would not want to play primavera if given what they asked for 

[JedTheHumanoid]

2 minutes ago, Whos3000_ said:

PS is the leading festival in the area for that kind of acts, if not the whole Europe. MA are playing the weekend after. If they wanted them very bad as was the case with SZA, for example, they would have likely won them over other festivals. 
ofc we don’t know everything but I can’t see why MA would not want to play primavera if given what they asked for 

MA's band member died a month ago. maybe they just wasn't sure if they'll tour or not in the time PS needed commitment from them.

There can be million reasons, PS are big and unique but you can't expect everyone to align all their plans to them whenever they ask

[xxialac]

Dogstar really are Maneskin-level dogshit aren't they.

Gabi just fancied meeting Keanu Reeves, didn't he...😅

[Whos3000_]

34 minutes ago, JedTheHumanoid said:

MA's band member died a month ago. maybe they just wasn't sure if they'll tour or not in the time PS needed commitment from them.

There can be million reasons, PS are big and unique but you can't expect everyone to align all their plans to them whenever they ask

I don’t think the death of the band member is related to this, otherwise they wouldn’t have toured at all. I agree there can be different reasons, all I am saying is that this is surprising given they clearly had the advantage of a previously canceled concert for them. Furthermore, the thing must have been in talks, otherwise the info I’ve reported would have been different (I’ve been told that if they were touring primavera would have been granted) 

[JedTheHumanoid]

15 minutes ago, Whos3000_ said:

I don’t think the death of the band member is related to this, otherwise they wouldn’t have toured at all. I agree there can be different reasons, all I am saying is that this is surprising given they clearly had the advantage of a previously canceled concert for them. Furthermore, the thing must have been in talks, otherwise the info I’ve reported would have been different (I’ve been told that if they were touring primavera would have been granted) 

I didn't say it prevented them from touring, but that PS, as a festival that releases the lineup earlier, and happens earlier than most other festivals, might require to get an answer before other festivals, and during that time they didn't know.

But again - this is one example, the important point is that we don't know most of the things behind the scenes, and there can be many other reasons they are not coming aside from PS didn't want them

[Rosh_Bothman]

Somewhere out there, in a parallel universe, there's a Primavera Sound which has Massive Attack, The Smile and LCD Soundsystem on the lineup. In that world there are people whinging on the internet because Pulp, Lana del Rey and Beth Gibbons are not playing 🤡

 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Rosh_Bothman

[Fabrizzo]

5 hours ago, Rosh_Bothman said:

lol

To be clear, the lineup suits me and I'm sure I'll enjoy it again this year, it seems strange to me that they couldn't call bands that were suitable for the festival and that I will have to get tickets separately, that's all

[scatteredscreens]

3 hours ago, Fabrizzo said:

To be clear, the lineup suits me and I'm sure I'll enjoy it again this year, it seems strange to me that they couldn't call bands that were suitable for the festival and that I will have to get tickets separately, that's all

 None of us know what happened. I am sure they are in touch with many acts who are active, it might just not have worked out for whatever reason. There's always potentially next year if the acts are around again.

 

[festivalguy97]

1 minute ago, scatteredscreens said:

 None of us know what happened. I am sure they are in touch with many acts who are active, it might just not have worked out for whatever reason. There's always potentially next year if the acts are around again.

 

Would be interesting to get Massive Attack for Primavera Porto. That weakened they are in Denmark so if there’s a gap it could be a good addition. I think it’s about time that Porto festival has a more solid lineup like Barcelona or at least has some more exclusive names. Yes it’s cheaper but I feel that sometime they just recycle names from Barcelona lineup to the Porto one. 

[PS Dawn]

That is done on purpose to save money on bookings. I do agree that a unique booking or two would be nice.

[xxialac]

9 hours ago, festivalguy97 said:

Would be interesting to get Massive Attack for Primavera Porto. That weakened they are in Denmark so if there’s a gap it could be a good addition. I think it’s about time that Porto festival has a more solid lineup like Barcelona or at least has some more exclusive names. Yes it’s cheaper but I feel that sometime they just recycle names from Barcelona lineup to the Porto one. 

It's a lot cheaper and a lot smaller site (and its profile is lower) so it will never have a more solid lineup than Barcelona. And without the recycling as PS Dawn says it wouldn't work at all.

The headliners have significantly improved over the years. I thought they did amazingly well to have Kendrick, Rosalia, Blur and New Order this year and Nick Cave, Tame Impala, Pavement, Beck and Gorillaz last year. 

For me Porto is already punching well above its weight for its price...

 

 

[Quadrophobia]

21 hours ago, xxialac said:

Massive Attack were literally the first name (as headliner) on the Primavera Sound poster for last year!!!

Headliners in 2022 were alphabetical

20 hours ago, Whos3000_ said:

Definitely not true. Massive attack as well as the smile remain core audience material. This is not sziget, it’s a festival with a strong underground tradition and Gabi and the others are music nerds with good taste. This is the reason why we don’t have Karol g but we had Rosalia 

 

the absence of massive attack the smile and lcd soundsystem implies a change of priorities and it’s correct to discuss it here, since  it might reflect future directions 

 

You misunderstand me. Its not about if Massive Attack fit (of course they do) its that this fest isn't conposed of 60% internationals anymore. Many internationals just can't reasonably afford the trip anymore and especially older former attendees will drop out of the PS game because of other obligations (as with every other festival). Hence, new local audiences have to be reached, logically younger ones as the festival built a majority of its former audience internationally and hence has weaker ties to older local audiences. And this means it can be risky to put too much emphasis on legacy acts like Massive Attack, Pulp, PJ Harvey and such, because these draw - on average - mostly older audiences.

The conditions for this festival have changed dramatically since 2022 due to rising costs for travel, the costs of doing a week of PS from anywhere you need to fly from now stand at a minimum of 1000€ - if you're going for group accomodation. Flights for me were 120€ both ways in 2016 and only got marginally more expensive through to 2019. Next year I'm looking at 350€ minimum. Costs for accomodation have almost doubled. With these conditions it simply isn't about liking the line up as much as being able to afford the trip anymore. And that'll mean losing a lot of older core audiences.

[festivalguy97]

4 minutes ago, Quadrophobia said:

Headliners in 2022 were alphabetical

 

You misunderstand me. Its not about if Massive Attack fit (of course they do) its that this fest isn't conposed of 60% internationals anymore. Many internationals just can't reasonably afford the trip anymore and especially older former attendees will drop out of the PS game because of other obligations (as with every other festival). Hence, new local audiences have to be reached, logically younger ones as the festival built a majority of its former audience internationally and hence has weaker ties to older local audiences. And this means it can be risky to put too much emphasis on legacy acts like Massive Attack, Pulp, PJ Harvey and such, because these draw - on average - mostly older audiences.

The conditions for this festival have changed dramatically since 2022 due to rising costs for travel, the costs of doing a week of PS from anywhere you need to fly from now stand at a minimum of 1000€ - if you're going for group accomodation. Flights for me were 120€ both ways in 2016 and only got marginally more expensive through to 2019. Next year I'm looking at 350€ minimum. Costs for accomodation have almost doubled. With these conditions it simply isn't about liking the line up as much as being able to afford the trip anymore. And that'll mean losing a lot of older core audiences.

I can confirm that going to Primavera Barcelona now is a kind of extravagant. Even if you buy the ticket in the Early Bird, the flights and accommodation are still too expensive, compared with some years ago. Yes due to inflation everything got expensive, but for me for example the flights used to be 100ish euros and now they are 200 at least. The hotels are crazy expensive, even my Spanish friends from Barcelona tell me that it's crazy expensive to live in Barcelona, and many just move to other Spanish cities for cheaper life. That's why I want the lineup to be good (to my taste ofc) and I cannot justify spending so much money this year for such a lineup.

I really wanted the Madrid edition to work. The place they chose to do it was terrible but in general Madrid is cheaper to fly from almost anywhere, MUCH cheaper accommodation, better food , but unfortunely it didn't work. I still think they will try either Madrid or another European location.

[frankburns]

On the official PS-Forum Gabi Ruiz was asked why Massive Attack are not on the line-up. His reply was that he won't answer this question because that could put him into jail...

"Hay cosas a las que no puedo responder porque me llevarían preso."

[Quadrophobia]

6 minutes ago, festivalguy97 said:

I can confirm that going to Primavera Barcelona now is a kind of extravagant. Even if you buy the ticket in the Early Bird, the flights and accommodation are still too expensive, compared with some years ago. Yes due to inflation everything got expensive, but for me for example the flights used to be 100ish euros and now they are 200 at least. The hotels are crazy expensive, even my Spanish friends from Barcelona tell me that it's crazy expensive to live in Barcelona, and many just move to other Spanish cities for cheaper life. That's why I want the lineup to be good (to my taste ofc) and I cannot justify spending so much money this year for such a lineup.

I really wanted the Madrid edition to work. The place they chose to do it was terrible but in general Madrid is cheaper to fly from almost anywhere, MUCH cheaper accommodation, better food , but unfortunely it didn't work. I still think they will try either Madrid or another European location.

I really think they should stop the expansion. London fell through, Madrid was a Desaster, L.A. didn't work out, Bogota had to be resized. It just seemed like one of these things private equity firms do, when low-interest rates make huge investments viable, but under the current conditions, runnning huge losses to establish a festival just makes little sense

[xxialac]

Barcelona is not crazy expensive to live in in absolute terms. Sure, the rents are going up a lot but still much less than UK equivalent and overall cost of living is pretty low. What is also admittedly low are salaries so on that basis it it is unaffordable for many.

[Quadrophobia]

8 minutes ago, xxialac said:

Barcelona is not crazy expensive to live in in absolute terms. Sure, the rents are going up a lot but still much less than UK equivalent and overall cost of living is pretty low. What is also admittedly low are salaries so on that basis it it is unaffordable for many.

It used to be crazy cheap on a Northern-European salary. My first PS in 2016 cost 450€ in total. It has become much more aligned with what a week in Berlin or so would cost, so its not a bargain anymore.

[Fabrizzo]

21 minutes ago, frankburns said:

On the official PS-Forum Gabi Ruiz was asked why Massive Attack are not on the line-up. His reply was that he won't answer this question because that could put him into jail...

"Hay cosas a las que no puedo responder porque me llevarían preso."

This is really strange, something Is happen...

[scatteredscreens]

5 minutes ago, Fabrizzo said:

This is really strange, something Is happen...

They probably took a better offer elsewhere, it's not that strange.

[festivalguy97]

26 minutes ago, xxialac said:

Barcelona is not crazy expensive to live in in absolute terms. Sure, the rents are going up a lot but still much less than UK equivalent and overall cost of living is pretty low. What is also admittedly low are salaries so on that basis it it is unaffordable for many.

I mean when say it's expensive to live, I mean for Spanish people not for some digital nomad with good salary. But even for me, being from Denmark and having one of the highest salaries in Europe, I find Barcelona expensive. And Madrid in that sense it's much better. And I do agree that Barcelona should not expand much, it should stick mostly to Barcelona and Porto but an alternative like Madrid was nice for me. And I do believe that in some years, if the municipality of Barcelona doesn't control the rising prices and so on, the festival will have to look at other alternatives. I mean one of the reasons why they wanted to move was the lack of support from Barcelona municipality. 

[festivalguy97]

5 minutes ago, scatteredscreens said:

They probably took a better offer elsewhere, it's not that strange.

I think that it's probably what happened, but I don't understand Gabi's comment, looks like they had a big disagreement or something. 

[scatteredscreens]

1 minute ago, festivalguy97 said:

I think that it's probably what happened, but I don't understand Gabi's comment, looks like they had a big disagreement or something. 

I don't think he wants to say a competitor festival has booked them instead. Hence the vague response.

Massive Attack probably said in 2022 'Next time we're around we'll come back' and then they did plan on coming back in 2024 and found better offers elsewhere, which probably rubbed Gabi the wrong way.

[xxialac]

5 minutes ago, festivalguy97 said:

I mean when say it's expensive to live, I mean for Spanish people not for some digital nomad with good salary. 

That’s exactly what I said.

[JedTheHumanoid]

16 minutes ago, festivalguy97 said:

I think that it's probably what happened, but I don't understand Gabi's comment, looks like they had a big disagreement or something. 

Gabi tends to be poetic on this subjects... I wouldn't read too much into it, they tried to get them and failed, and he's disappointed

[xxialac]

For all we know, they have a new agent who was being an arse about the revised terms they wanted. 
Anyway, no one band is bigger than the festival!