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The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain, as they say – except on Thursday, between the hours of 8 and 9pm, when it seems to mainly fall on the rock band Geese. “Qué bonita lluvia” (what pretty rain!), drawls Cameron Winter, Geese’s rakish, tracksuit-wearing frontman, as the first drops of water fall on Primavera Sound’s Occident stage. They’re words to be eaten: an hour later, the band are drenched, water pooling on the floor and coating the instruments and musicians. Their set meets the epic ferocity of the conditions: this is an immensely impressive, technically emphatic gig from a young band who justify all hyperbole. But another hour goes by, and Spain’s biggest music festival has been rained into disarray.
Faced with an hours-long downpour and pernicious winds, Primavera’s infrastructure falters. Safety risks mean that many of Thursday’s acts are cancelled, including Mac DeMarco, Spanish singer-songwriter Bad Gyal, and the headliner, Doja Cat. Organisers can’t, of course, be blamed for unexpectedly harsh weather, but communication proves an avoidable problem. Doja Cat announces her own cancellation in a tearful instagram video; at some point, the festival declares that Massive Attack will perform later than expected, only to then reverse this decision. Kept away from the main stages, hoards of people congest the sheltered areas, unsure whether to pack it in for the night. It feels like there aren’t enough stewards; everyone is complaining. Those acts who do manage to perform – notably French electropop waif Oklou and old-hand eccentric Father John Misty – make a good show of it.
If there was a whiff of disaster about Primavera’s first big night, then by morning it mercifully dissipates. Rilo Kiley are an early Friday highlight, the American indie rockers having reunited a year ago, nearly two decades after disbanding. There’s an amiable middle-agedness to their vibe these days, playing songs written by their younger selves; their sound is crisp and unfaded. Jenny Lewis, in yellow sunglasses, radiates New Age cool.
open image in galleryNext up is Addison Rae, over on one of the festival’s two biggest stages; pulling mostly from last year’s debut album Addison, she draws a big crowd, and makes it count. There’s something uncannily Britney-ish about her choreography, and she spends much of her set writhing around in her skivvies. The music, though, is punchy and infectious, with tracks like “Diet Pepsi” – so smooth and breathy on record – revealing a real toothfulness in performance. She’s followed by The Cure, delivering their first live performance in two years. It’s a solid set, featuring several unexpected off-cuts for the diehards (“2 Late”; “Mint Car”), but also a long one, running for some two and a half hours. Would it be heresy to suggest that it dragged a little?
This is the thing about Primavera. You check the schedule at 1am and realise the day’s only half-done. Ex-Little Mix-er JADE is fun, dynamic, and gets the crowd going. The venue for ascendent pop star PinkPantheress is completely rammed – the perils, I assume, of hitting the big time in the months between being booked and performing.
For a particular brand of music nerd, Saturday is about one thing: Big Thief. Given the option, I would probably dedicate the bulk of this review to the American folk-rock group’s early-evening set – a transcendent, moving, and characteristically intimate performance that incorporates a lot of new material. Watching them perform increasingly feels like you are not just watching a great band, but one of the great bands: at a certain point, these sorts of notions will surely stop sounding like hype and start becoming axiom.
Cynics might suggest that Primavera is in the throes of a musical identity crisis: the festival, once bedrocked by indie cool, now comprises an eclectic mix of genres, with plenty of pop (last year’s bill was topped by Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX.) So it isn’t particularly shocking when Olivia Rodrigo is announced as Saturday’s secret set. Gen-Z’s pop-punk prodigy delivers a fun – if generally unremarkable – set of singalong hits, along with a rendition of an unheard new song “What’s Wrong With Me” (a duet with The Cure’s Robert Smith, brought out here looking perhaps livelier than the previous night.)
As night falls on Barcelona, there are still big names to come: Gorillaz, who pack their headline set with a raft of special guests (Yasiin Bey; Little Simz; Bootie Brown), and Irish rap trio Kneecap, who close off the night in typically raucous fashion. In a way, the lousy weather was a case of fortuitous timing: after two untroubled days of vibrant and varied music, it’s hard to feel short-changed.