We’ve spent the last fifty-one weeks waiting for the musical highlight of the year and in exactly seven days, Primavera Sound festival will begin. Strictly speaking PS ‘26 is three days of music (3-6 June)  in the centre of Barcelona, right next to the sea. But when you factor in the incredible extras that really make the festival unique, like the A La Ciutat shows, the Inaugural Day that is totally free to access and the closing Primavera Bits electronic day then the whole thing becomes a whole week of creating your own musical adventure.

Tickets are currently sold out for the main part of the festival and the Inaugural Day but as we get closer it’s always worth jumping on the wait list for any last minute returns. Meanwhile there still remain some tickets for Primavera Bits and  a couple of the A La Ciutat shows on Fever. For those of you unable to attend this year, fear not because you can now put in your requests for Primavera Sound ’27 via thier wishlist.

But for those of you that are going, here’s Loverboy’s take on who to see at Primavera Sound ‘26…

Monday
Day One begins in the city with A La Ciutat shows taking place across the city. Opening the week this year are Palida Tez from Albacete, Spain whose music runs the gamut from shoegaze to noise rock. But Loverboy’s first show will be over at La Nau to catch the Manchester-based Jasmine.4.T.  Her angsty and excellent album You Are The Morning was produced by members of boygenius while the indie-folk artist is signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ own label, Saddest Factory Records. After that we’ll be taking in more sounds from the UK with legends Current 93. The experimental act started making music in 1982 and have been freaking us out ever since with apocalyptic folk and tales of the occult.

Tuesday
There are many reasons to love the A La Ciutat element to Primavera Sound. Often major acts from the main festival line-up partake meaning you get to see them pre-fest, avoid any clashes on the weekend and see them in a much smaller venue than normal. This year we’ll be seeing Blood Orange at the 1.5k capacity Paral-lel 62, we’re willing to bet Dev has not played a venue this small for a few years now. At the same time, on the opposite side of the Avenida Paral-lel, Yves Tumor will be playing the even smaller Sala Apolo. It’s been a while since the experimental rock artist released any new music so maybe he’ll be debuting some new material…or performing his own version of Rosalía’s ‘Berghain’ after appearing on the original.

Wednesday
The Inaugural Day is the festival’s gift to the city and is always a great mix of domestic heroes and international up and comers. This year the full time papi himself Guitarricadelafuente will be playing tracks from his most recent album, the flamenco-tinged indie pop Spanish Leather. After him the UK’s Wet Leg are up with their often tongue-in-cheek post punk. One thing about Primavera Sound is you can be sure those motherfuckers are going to get you staying up late. So Wednesday’s we’ll be adjusting out body block and staying out to catch Noise Rock Brooklynites Model/Actriz for their set at 1:25am in Sala Apolo. They are not playing the main festival this year, so it’s a coup for A La Ciutat and sure to be one of our highlights for the whole week.

Thursday
With over ten stages, Primavera Sound truly has something for everyone and we’ll be beginning our evening with the jazzy house vibes of Berlioz. Two years ago we caught him play the cramped and sticky Razzmatazz (2) before he blew up so we’re looking forward to seeing again in sunshine, by the sea with Aperol Spritz in hand. Later we’ll be catching the delicate sounds of Oklou at the Cupra amphitheatre playing tracks from last year’s glitchy and experimental choke enough. Our nostalgia act this year is Massive Attack who are currently touring with Cocteau Twin’s Liz Fraser. Hearing the original vocalist perform ‘Teardrop’, ‘Black Milk’ and other tracks from Mezzanine will be very special. After that the Big Boss herself, Doja Cat will be sure to put on a runway of a show judging by her Coachella set designed by Charlie Le Mindu. She’ll be giving spectacle in the one-hour-forty-minute set. Thursday is set to be even later than Wednesday and closing us out will be the eclectic but always wild sounds of ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U as the first of many sunrise soundtracks.

Friday
Day Two is our designated pop day where we will begin with the moody Americana angst of Ethel Cain. Directly after will be the girl of the moment, Addison Rae. The Tik Tok star hard launched her pop career last year with her self-titled album and here she is headlining Primavera Sound months later. Can’t a girl have fun? It would seem so! Later the UK pop IT girl Jade plays the Occident stage. The Ex-Little Mix-er always delivers live and we can’t wait to see her bring singles like ‘Angel of My Dreams’, ‘It Girl’ and ‘Plastic Box’ to the show. Then completing the pop girl line-up in PinkPantheress who we saw play Prima two years ago. She was hiding behind the decks and playing Sweet Female Attitude’s ‘I’ll Bring You Flowers’. A great set but a lot has changed in those two years. This time it will be the PinkPantheress the performer with a full-on production. ‘My name is Pink and I’m really glad to meet you.’ This will be PinkPantheress in her final form. A random one to throw in the mix could be Raya Diplomatica whose main guy is Javier Calvo, aka one half of Los Javis who just won Best Director at Cannes. See him smoke and serve punk attitude in his side gig.

Saturday
Bringing the Brit attitude straight out of Allbarone will be Baxter Dury opening the final day of the fest. Mixing electronic production with tales of late nights in London, it’s going to be messy. After that we’ll be retreating into the darkness of the Auditori Rockdeluxx to see goth rock singer/producer Anna Von Hausswolff. Then after branching out into solo careers, The xx have reformed and return with their first Primavera show in nine years. It’s going to be an event. Lambrini Girls play the Port stage at 11pm and always bring the energy. Kneecap produced an album this year that lived up to the hype and the energy of their live shows. Last year there were chants of ‘Maggie’s in her box’ and ‘Viva Palestina’, let’s see what happens when they’re allowed out of A La Ciutat and on to the Occident stage at 3am. Closing us out will be Peggy Gou from 4:15am. Looking forward to hearing her blast out her recent remix to Madonna’s comeback single ‘I Feel So Free’ as the sun rises on the final day of Primavera Sound ’26.

Sunday
That’s if you are not partaking in the many activities on Sunday. There’s Primavera Bits featuring the legend Carl Cox and then there are A La Ciutat shows across the city. We’ll be closing things out with the riot-grrrl high-energy punk of Die Spitz. It’s going to be a great week….

www.primaverasound.com