· 293,000 attendees gather during the Primavera Sound week with Barcelona at the centre of all eyes on the music planet
· Chappell Roan, LCD Soundsystem, Fontaines D.C., Turnstile, Central Cee, Amaia, ANOHNI and the Johnsons and Kim Deal will be the stars of the last of the three main days today, with the Primavera Bits x Nitsa electronic party rounding off the festival tomorrow
· The exemplary behaviour of the audience, along with the camaraderie between the three headliners, spread an atmosphere of complicity throughout the festival
· The fact that it sold out five months in advance and the outstanding performances endorse the success of Primavera Sound’s artistic line-up
It’s still far from over, but everything we’ve experienced so far at Primavera Sound Barcelona 2025 already projects such an impressive picture that it’s worth taking a couple of steps back to process it better. Because with Chappell Roan, LCD Soundsystem, Fontaines D.C., Turnstile, Central Cee, Amaia, ANOHNI and the Johnsons and Kim Deal protagonising the last of the three main days, and with the closing electronic party Primavera Bits x Nitsa tomorrow as the grand finale, the 23rd edition of Primavera Sound has made up a whole week full of musical events with worldwide repercussions.
The image that already reflects this year’s Primavera Sound to remember is perhaps presented in vertical format like the screens that flank the stages of the festival, although off-screen a lot of exceptional things have also happened as is usual here. And if we borrow another cinematographic metaphor to apply it to music, we can talk about an edition marked by the breaking of that fourth wall that theoretically separates artists and audience. At Primavera Sound Barcelona 2025 it didn’t exist: the two most important parts of this mechanism have fallen into place.
The complicity between one and the other has volatilised this frontier to the point where roles are continually interchanged in a game of synergies. Chappell Roan joining in the massive Apple choreography on the festival screens during Charli xcx’s concert; IDLES crowd surfing; Kevin Parker of Tame Impala joining the party at the last minute, like that friend who gets fed up of just seeing it all on stories, to play a surprise set; beabadoobee confessing to being a fan before being an artist by dedicating a song to indie hero Stephen Malkmus; Cassandra Jenkins freaking out about the sea views as anyone would on their first visit to the Parc del Fòrum; Troye Sivan deciding to celebrate his thirtieth birthday at the festival because his friends were going to be there; Hinds joining the BRAT fever that painted the day green on Thursday by covering Girl, so confusing. The public sisterhood between the three headliners, powerpuff girls Charli xcx, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, spread throughout Primavera Sound Barcelona as the whole music planet looked on.
The only doubt is to know exactly where to look because the festival, as always, has once again hidden an infinite number of different festivals inside it. And as a consequence, the spotlights have multiplied here and there: Kali Malone’s drone ceremony, the precise art-pop manoeuvres of FKA twigs, the Australian breeze of Parcels, the gigantic dance floor ruled by a Jamie xx who was born to set el ritmo de la noche, the debauchery of The Dare, Cat Power’s review of Bob Dylan’s repertoire, YOASOBI’s J-pop vignettes, the country summit between Waxahatchee and MJ Lenderman, The Hard Quartet’s tribute to the ageless David Berman covering Silver Jews, Villano Antillano’s unexpected performance, the preview of HAIM’s new album, Stereolab’s pop lesson with their first album in three years, Beach House’s starry night, TV On the Radio’s revival as a one-of-a-kind band, Palestinian rappers Shabjdeed & Al Nather’s cry of pain and pride, the ultimate boost of Wet Leg just a month away from releasing their second album and the only concert of the mysterious Salem in 2025. In short, Primavera Sound has been like a wheel of fortune in which everybody always wins an outstanding performance, made possible by the team of 7,300 professionals who uphold the quality standards set by the festival. Their work has ensured a smooth and enjoyable experience at the Parc del Fòrum.
All this in front of the 293,000 people who sold out the festival five months in advance and who, once the music finally started to play last Monday, have supported this atmosphere of fraternity with exemplary behaviour. They have been direct participants in this tremendous Primavera Sound week, both on the Parc del Fòrum site and in the seven venues that have made up the Primavera a la Ciutat programme. In total, 311 shows continue to consolidate a recognisable and personal urban festival format, with Barcelona as the driving force behind everything that has happened and will continue to happen, which has also received the backing of the music industry at Primavera Pro. The meeting for professionals of Primavera Sound has brought together over 3,200 accredited people from 68 countries, turning the CCCB into an epicentre of debate, networking and live music.
Valuable figures to gauge the success of Primavera Sound Barcelona’s artistic proposal, unprecedented at a large festival. Three female artists respectively headlining the three main days to close the circle that began to be drawn at the 2019 edition, the first in the history of Primavera Sound to have a gender-balanced line-up. After Charli xcx’s dazzling performance a year after inaugurating her BRAT summer in the Parc del Fòrum and Sabrina Carpenter’s search for the perfect chorus, today it will be the turn of Chappell Roan, the princess of the Midwest.
Three contemporary pop star models that have firmly established the festival in the purest here and now… with its sights already set on the future. On the immediate horizon is Primavera Sound Porto, which will take over from Barcelona from next Thursday. And as this never stops, there are already dates for the best week of 2026: the 24th edition of Primavera Sound Barcelona will celebrate its main days from the 4th to the 6th of June.
Primavera Sound Barcelona 2025 has been made possible thanks to the commitment to live music of our strategic partners: Estrella Damm, Revolut and Cupra. In addition, the festival has had the essential collaboration of Amazon Music as a streaming partner and Levi’s, Schwarzkopf, Jameson, Trainline, Aperol, Pull&Bear, adidas and flowo as partners, as well as Plenitude as a sustainability partner and Fever as the official point of sale. Many thanks to everyone for their support for a historic edition.
