The worst part to every Primavera Sound festival? Today. Right now. What we are experiencing. The Monday after the greatest week of the year. Our annual summer vacation. Seven days filled with music, dancing, connecting, celebrating…gurl, liviiiing!
2025’s incredible edition was similar to 2019’s precedent where the focus was on the gender split and ensuring that female artists were represented just as much as male. This year the festival took it one step further with a holy trinity of headliners, the powerpuff girls themselves, Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, each playing a different day. The result? The most visibly queerest audience yet, filled with girls, gays, thems and theys draped in their best BRAT green, babydoll blue and pink pony club….pink! The energy of the crowds was so warm, friendly and open-minded it really changed the whole feel of the week. We made so many new friends in the moment, bonding over the rise and rise of CMAT, the excitement of catching Allie X in her Girl with No Face era and whether Rosalía would show up for Raya Diplomatica‘s performance.
The main Thursday-Saturday three day festival showcased over 220 shows but one of our favourite things this year were the additional reveals upon reveals, to the point where there were over 300 shows during the week. First up there was the return of Á La Ciutat shows – additional shows free for full ticket holders in some of the more intimate venues across Barcelona. Then there was this year’s Primavera Bits x Nitsa on the Sunday which saw dance artists like BUNT and Michael Bibi take over Parc Del Forum. Auditori also moved to two other locals venues in the city. Then there was the last minute surprises of the Levi‘s festival within the festival and the new CUPRA Pulse stage.
As for the artists, we’re still processing everything we have seen. Maybe it’s easier to start in reverse. We closed the festival on Sunday with the much-anticipated show from the band of the moment Kneecap playing Sala Apolo as part of Á La Ciutat. The show was electric, with the ultra-charismatic Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap taking charge and the balaclava-clad DJ Próvaí crowd-surfing in the pit. Primavera would be crazy not to book them again for 2026….if the government don’t book them first.
Saturday closed for us with a phenomenal performance from LCD Soundsystem, 22 years after their last appearance here. If we’re honest during the electroclash era we were more Fischerspooner, Ladytron. We kind of missed oout on LCD somehow. So seeing James Murphy emotionally belt out those tracks on Saturday, it was moving, in every way possible and let us fall in love for the first time. Before them was our highlight of the whole festival, Chappell Roan. Of late we’ve been to a couple of Dungeon Synth shows and seeing Chappell’s fantastical set, we sense we are not the only fans of that aesthetic. Complete with gargoyles, baby dragons and a tonne of dry ice and fire, the production of Chappell’s show was another level. Kudos to Primavera for making it possible. The songs, the majority from only her debut album, sounding spectacular, although our personal highlight was absolutely the bridge from ‘Good Luck, babe!’ The happiness and joy that was experienced in the crowd at the moment was unreal. Shout out also to Spanish artist Judeline who opened the main stage Saturday. She was clearly a pop star in training who already has the songs, thhe charisma and presence. Look forward to hearing more from her.
Talking of local bands we began our Friday with Fades, three Catalan queers from Mallorca, who mix reggaeton with pop and pluma. They really brought the highest-form of faggotry to the festival and hopefully their music reached more non-Spanish speakers. Yoasabi came representing Japan with their blend of J-Pop, Techno and RnB. They slayed and provided a welcome injection of ‘something totally different’ to the festival. Previous years have always represented the Asian scene more, so we look forward to maybe a few more names on the line up next year. Wolf Alice came in as a last minute replacement from Clairo and to be honest, it was the best case scencario because they killed it. Like a mixture between PJ Harvey and Fleetwood Mac, the Brits really gave us the perfect setlist as the sun went down. Oh and our discovery of the day was France’s Zaho de Sagazan who’s set really brought out the French, disco, electropop energy in her studio albums.
Our first full day commenced with CMAT and just the lovely vibe she created with the crowd. A couple of Tik Tok moves, some summery songs about self-belief and a tonne of Irish charm. After a couple of cancellations and visa problems it was uncertain if FKA Twigs would show, but show she did and then some. She delivered a super slick and sexy Y2K show, bringing the essence of Eusexua and putting her pole-dancing skills to work. Friday actually brought us two of our favourite sets from the whole week. We skipped sweating with Charli & Troye so Kelly Lee Owens could transport us to Dream State. The set was perfect, trancey, ethereal and then at times she really hit us hard. By 3:30am we were ready for something even darker and we caught local heroes, the Industrial duo Dame Area smash the stage up.
That just leaves us to finish where we started with our pre-show warm up with the Á La Ciutat shows, Beach House on Wednesday and then the deadly double bill of Lambrini Girls & Allie X on Tuesday and starting the week with the Welsh witches, Tristwch & Fenywod.
While the line up has been strong, this year our favourite part was genuinely the crowds that came to have fun and enjoy the best kinds of music. It’s credit to the Primavera Sound team and how they curated the list, knowing who they wanted to bring together. Just another fifty-one weeks until the next one…
Primavera Sound 2026 will take place at Barcelona’s Parc Del Forum from 4th-6th June 2026.
Photo credits
Chappell Roan – Clara Orozco
Judeline – Gisela Jané
FKA Twigs – Clara Orozco
