From legendary late-night headliners to exciting early-day up-and-comers, the best things we saw from a weekend by the water in Barcelona.
Robert Smith of The Cure performs at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre on May 20, 2023 in Chula Vista, California.
Photo by Harmony Gerber/Getty Images
The 24th edition of the Primavera Sound festival — coming a full quarter-century after a much more modest version of the festival initially debuted in 2001 — went down this week in Barcelona. While a handful of acts (including buzzy indie-rockers Wet Leg) officially kicked off the fest on Wednesday (June 3), and a few more (ending with legendary house DJ Carl Cox) will see it out on Sunday (June 7), the crux of the festival transpired over June 4-6, with three days of genre-and-globe-spanning artists adding up to one of the richest festival experiences currently available anywhere on the map.
Unfortunately, the first of those three main days got largely washed out, as the rains came in early evening and lasted till early morning. The weather resulted in messy conditions and great confusion, with poor communication between organizers, staffers and attendees, as nearly all the stages were at least temporarily suspended, and the night’s main-stage acts saw their sets suspended and ultimately canceled — including the trio of Wednesday headliners, U.K. trip-hop greats Massive Attack, U.S. pop-rap star Doja Cat and Spain rhythmic hitmaker Bad Gyal. (Several of the side stages ultimately reopened, with plenty of strong options remaining for those who stuck around.)
