Primavera Sound won’t return to Madrid next year
After an inaugural event in 2023, Primavera Sound have confirmed the festival won’t return to Madrid in 2024.
This year, the festival hosted one event in Barcelona and another in Madrid rather than the festival running over two consecutive weekends in Catalonia. The first day of Primavera Sound in the Spanish capital was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions, and headliners Blur honoured their contract by performing in an intimate indoor venue.
Ultimately, organisers have decided the infrastructure isn’t in place in Madrid for Primavera Sound to become an annual tradition. In a statement, they said: “The expectations we had were not fulfilled and the experience of the festivalgoers was not the desired one. The conditions are not right for Madrid to have a Primavera Sound as it deserves in 2024.”
They continued: “Although both the city of Madrid and the whole region welcomed us with open arms, with a warmth that was mirrored in the institutions, the cultural agents and of course the audience, the external difficulties that the festival had to face in the final stretch of the pre-production gave rise to one of the most complicated events that Primavera Sound has ever had to face.”
Primavera Sound claim the city “does not have a site able to host an event of this magnitude and format in terms of audience demands, production requirements, and musical show”, causing a litany of logistical errors.
They added: “As a consequence, although the evaluation of the festival was more than satisfactory on a musical level, the expectations we had were not fulfilled and the experience of the festivalgoers due to several logistical aspects was not the desired one”.
Watch footage below from Fred Again’s set at Primavera Sound in Madrid.
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