Primavera Sound 2022

The Primavera Sound 2022 music festival was held from 2 June to 12 June 2022 at the Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona and Sant Adrià del Besòs, Spain. After both the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival returned with a new two-weekend format that combined many bookings from the scheduled 2020 and 2021 lineups while adding new artists as well.

The first weekend was headlined by Pavement, Tame Impala, Beck, The National, Gorillaz, Jorja Smith, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and Tyler, the Creator, while the second weekend was headlined by Dua Lipa, Gorillaz, Interpol, Tyler, the Creator, Lorde, The Strokes, Jorja Smith, Megan Thee Stallion, Tame Impala, Phoenix and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Massive Attack were scheduled to headline both weekends, but had to cancel all performances scheduled for 2022 due to a member's "serious illness." In between both weekends at Parc del Fòrum, Primavera a la Ciutat was held in a record 14 local venues across the city of Barcelona from 5 June to 8 June.

The festival was attended by a franchise-record 460,500 people and was the fourth-most attended festival in the world for 2022 behind Coachella, Tomorrowland and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. It generated €349 million in revenue for the city of Barcelona, with each attendee spending an average of €1,423. It was the festival's twentieth edition and named an Event of Exceptional Public Interest by the Spanish government's Ministry of Culture and Sports. A total of 674 artists performed over the 16 stages at the Parc del Fòrum and the 14 additional venues throughout Barcelona.

Background

On the final day of Primavera Sound 2019, the festival announced that Pavement would be reuniting for the first time since 2010 to headline Primavera Sound 2020.

The initial 2020 lineup was announced on 15 January, with Massive Attack, Pavement, The National, The Strokes, Lana del Rey, Tyler, the Creator, Bad Bunny and Disclosure as headliners. However, on 28 March 2020, the festival announced that it would be moved to 26–30 August as a result of the growing COVID-19 pandemic. On 11 May 2020, it was announced that the year's edition would be cancelled entirely.

On 27 May 2020, Primavera Sound revealed its 2021 lineup, scheduled for 2–6 June. The lineup was similar to the cancelled 2020 edition, but with Beck, Gorillaz and Tame Impala added as headliners without Massive Attack or Lana del Rey, and Charli XCX, FKA Twigs and Jamie xx added to the undercard. On 9 June, Primavera Sound finalized the lineup with several new acts such as Beach Bunny, Kurt Vile, Kim Gordon, Slowthai, Khruangbin, Lingua Ignota, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Otoboke Beaver, The Murder Capital and The Caretaker.

On 2 March 2021, the festival was cancelled for a second straight year as preparations under current COVID-19 restrictions were deemed untenable. On 25 May, Primavera Sound announced its initial lineup for 2022, scheduled for 2–12 June. It would be the first time that the festival would take place over two weeks. Dua Lipa, Jorja Smith, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Interpol, Lorde, Megan Thee Stallion and Yeah Yeah Yeahs were the artists named headliners that did not appear in the 2020 or 2021 lineups. On 8 June, Phoenix was added as an additional headliner, and the next day, Ride was announced, performing ''Nowhere'' and ''Going Blank Again'' in full on back-to-back days.

On 13 December, the festival confirmed even more additions to the lineup, including Low, Grimes, PinkPantheress, Bleachers, Amyl and the Sniffers, Remi Wolf, Magdalena Bay, Wet Leg and Meet Me at the Altar. Napalm Death, Beabadoobee and Kano dropped out. On 1 February 2022, The Smile was added to the lineup.

Thirty-eight days before the start of the festival, on 28 April, the festival announced more lineup changes. Mdou Moctar, Napalm Death, Caterina Barbieri, Richard Dawson and Circle, Yeule, Doss and IC3PEAK were among the names added to replace Connan Mockasin, Jessica Pratt, King Princess, OM, Perfume, Tokischa and Turnstile dropping out.

On 31 May, a day before the festival's activities would start, Bikini Kill, Georgia, Girl in Red, Kehlani, Lingua Ignota and Pa Salieu dropped out, replaced by Joey Badass, Let's Eat Grandma and Marina Herlop.

Leading up to the festival, there were initial organisational difficulties and notable tensions between the City Council of Barcelona, the City Council of Sant Adrià del Besòs and co-director Gabi Ruiz about a possible relocation to Madrid. Despite initial controversies, resolutions came forward by increasing staff members and flowing communication with Mayor Ada Colau, who agreed to expand the festival's contract with the city until at least 2027.

Festival recap

Primavera Sound hosted a free opening day event at the Poble Espanyol on 1 June, featuring Rina Sawayama headlining as well as The Linda Lindas, Wet Leg and Teto Preto.

On 2 June, The Strokes announced that they would be unable to perform their scheduled first week headlining slot the next day because of a COVID-19 infection within the band. As a result, Caribou was moved to The Strokes' timeslot on the main stages, while Mogwai added a second set to accompany their second week performance. Tame Impala covered "Last Nite" during their first week headline set in honor of The Strokes' cancellation, and Kevin Parker said onstage about playing it: "Probably never again. It's just for you guys."

Pavement's headlining set on 2 June was just their second performance since 2010, aside from a warmup show at Los Angeles' The Fonda Theatre a week earlier. The band played 27 songs, including many that had not been played since the 1990s.

Gorillaz brought several guests during their headlining sets on 4 and 9 June: Mos Def for " Stylo" and "Sweepstakes", Fatoumata Diawara for "Broken" and " Désolé", Bootie Brown for "Dirty Harry", Slowthai for "Momentary Bliss" and De La Soul for "Feel Good Inc." ''Stereogum'' lauded their performance as "the big unifying act" to close the first weekend.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds headlined on 4 June in what was just their second show since the death of Nick Cave's son Jethro. He dedicated the song " I Need You" to his two sons Luke and Earl, whom he said were probably watching Bauhaus' simultaneous performance. He also dedicated " Jubilee Street" "to the children".

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard notably performed five sets without repeating a single song in a setlist.

Sky Ferreira's set on 11 June was suddenly moved back two hours at the last minutes. She showed up onstage 15 minutes late, scrapped several songs midway, skipped parts of the setlist and successfully pleaded to be allotted more time to perform set closer " Everything Is Embarrassing". Playboi Carti also performed 40 minutes late on 9 June.

The Boiler Room x Cupra stage suffered a broken floor during a Kenny Beats DJ set. It, along with the NTS stage, had strict limited entry.

For the first time, the two main stages were placed side by side instead of facing each other. Director Gabi Ruiz said that this change was made to "reduce crowd pressure". ''The Independent'' commented that while it created an overall larger crowd in the area and longer bar queues, it benefited festivalgoers by allowing for an easier path between headlining sets. Many stages changed sponsorship names since the 2019 edition: the Ray-Ban amphitheatre stage was now named for Cupra, the Adidas seafront stage became Ouigo, the Pitchfork stage became Plenitude, the Primavera stage was now named Binance, and the SEAT main stage was now Estrella Damm.

Around 460,500 people attended the festival in seven days, 65% of whom were foreign, and a large proportion of these were from the United Kingdom. The festival had a significant economic impact, with each spectator spending an estimated average of 1,423 euros. Several Barcelonian independent record stores and NGOs also had representation at the festival.

Logistical concerns

''The Independent'', ''Stereogum'', ''Clash'' and ''The Skinny'' reported on "dangerous conditions" at Parc del Fòrum during its first day on 2 June. The concerns included a lack of security, safe exit placements and crowd control which led to bottlenecking and crowd crushes, though the festival claimed that the grounds were still 30,000 people below maximum capacity. There was also a lack of water access, as there was none available aside from the bars which were reportedly understaffed, leading to hour-long waits. Festivalgoers complained about feeling unsafe and easily dehydrated in the Barcelona heat as a result. In response, Primavera Sound promised improvements and said the bar issues were caused by staff shortages and technical difficulties with credit card payments. The festival announced that it had fixed Parc del Fòrum's Wi-Fi issues overnight and hired additional staff for the remainder of the two weeks. Additionally, free cans of water would be distributed throughout three different stations on the grounds.

''Stereogum'' noted that the festival's logistics felt better on the second day. ''Rolling Stone'' reported that "by its second weekend, the festival had (mostly) adjusted to these teething problems", as "the staff were more fairly distributed between the quieter and busier areas, the internet problems that caused delays with wireless card payments at the bars were fixed, and more water points had been added across the site." ''Mixmag'' said, "Comparisons to Fyre Festival were off-key, especially given that Primavera corrected most problems by the second night and all (apart from the bridge o Bits by the following weekend."

Headline set lists

First weekend

Second weekend

Lineup

Headline performers are listed in boldface. Artists listed from latest to earliest set times.

Estrella Damm

Pull&Bear

Binance

Cupra

Plenitude

Ouigo

Tous

Dice

Night Pro

Boiler Room X Cupra

NTS

Estrella Damm Sona

Tous Sona

Jack Daniel's Sona

Auditori Rockdelux

Day Pro

Primavera a la Ciutat lineup

Bóveda

Day Pro

La Apolo

La Nau

La Tèxtil

Laut

Paral.lel 62

Poble Espanyol

Razzmatazz

Razzmatazz 2

Red58

Sala Apolo

Sala Vol

Sidecar

UPLOAD

Brunch on the Beach lineup

Dice

Tous

Gallery

File:Antònia Font al Primavera Sound 2022.jpg, Antònia Font performing on 11 June.
File:PrimaveraBarcW1Jun22 (34 of 318) (52163778101).jpg, Charli XCX performing on 2 June.
File:PrimaveraBarcW1Jun22 (291 of 318) (52162735042).jpg, Idles performing on 5 June.
File:PrimaveraBarcW1Jun22 (147 of 318) (52163770083).jpg, Jorja Smith performing on 4 June.
File:PrimaveraBarcW1Jun22 (12 of 318) (52164266690).jpg, Kacey Musgraves performing on 2 June.
File:PrimaveraBarcW1Jun22 (108 of 318) (52163772873).jpg, The National performing on 3 June.
File:PrimaveraBarcW1Jun22 (228 of 318) (52164002949).jpg, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds performing on 4 June.
File:LordePrimavera100622 (6 of 69) (52189027701).jpg, Lorde performing on 10 June.
File:LordePrimavera100622 (57 of 69) (52189278549).jpg, M.I.A. performing on 10 June.
File:PrimaveraBarcW1Jun22 (57 of 318) (52164264330).jpg, Rina Sawayama performing on 2 June.
File:PrimaveraBarcW1Jun22 (295 of 318) (52163998629).jpg, Tyler, the Creator performing on 4 June.

Cancelled acts

*Afrikan Sciences
*Bestia Bebé
*Bikini Kill
*Bleachers
*Clairo
*DJ Black Low
*Georgia
*girl in red
*Holly Humberstone
*Kehlani
*King Princess
*Lingua Ignota
*Little Simz (5 June performance)
*La Mafia del Amor
*Massive Attack
*Pa Salieu
*PinkPantheress
*Rapsody
*Tainy
*The Strokes (3 June performance)

References

{{Primavera Sound
Primavera Sound
2022 music festivals
June 2022 in Spain
Music festivals in Catalonia