Everybody knows that Spanish festivals kick a serious amount of arse. There’s the weather, the absence of grotty campsites and the completely un-British way bands don’t even soundcheck until gone 6pm.
So if you are going to throw caution to the Icelandic dust cloud, make sure you do it for Primavera Sound. Held in the Parc Del Forum complex by the beach in Barcelona, this year’s festival has a truly epic line-up so varied it covers pretty much every musical base.
The Pixies and Pavement headline a bill peppered with legendary indie veterans. Post-punkers The Fall, Wire and The Slits feature – way past their bedtime – alongside Built to Spill, Wilco, Mission of Burma and Les Savy Fav. Then there’s every new band worth talking about, including Fuck Buttons, Beach House, Grizzly Bear and The XX and a load of electro nonsense including Orbital, Moderat and Diplo.
Since the whole thing is partnered with ATP and Pitchfork, Primavera promises to be an overly credible chin-stroking festival of the very highest order. But who cares? With a line-up like that it deserves to be smug.
Words by Natalie Hardwick
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