25 Jul 2024 7 min read Essay

Do Local Scenes Benefit From Major Events Like Primavera?

Primavera Sound did not make Arca or Rosalia. But the festival has helped propel other local acts beyond Spain’s borders.

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Darren Loucaides explores whether the international music festival benefits the scene in the city he now calls home.

As soon as the first punters made it through security on day two of Barcelona’s Primavera Sound festival, a human wave of Gen Z-ers started running to the main stage. Lana Del Rey would be performing in six hours’ time and her fans were claiming their spots as early as possible meaning that, unlike other days, the main stage was densely crowded for the day’s first act, a slightly bemused local artist named Ferran Palau.

“I played the same stage two years ago,” says Ferran, who remembers a healthy crowd building for later headliners Gorillaz, but nothing like this year’s Lana Del Rey fandom. Another difference – his promised two-hour setup slot was cut down to a 10-minute line check due to Lana-related delays. “And that annoyed us a bit,” Ferran admits, before enthusing about how well the concert went. “Obviously, at Primavera Sound you're playing in front of many people who don't know you, which is part of the charm. And there were a lot of people.”

It was impossible to get anywhere near the front for Ferran’s set, but I could see the crowd giving a surprisingly warm reception to his chilled-out indie-folk, sounding, to these ears, like a poppier Mac De Marco with Catalan lyrics. Speaking afterwards, Ferran is mostly impressed to see people respond to music in another language, “Something that should be the most normal thing in the world,” he says, “but which still isn't.”

Since launching in 2001 as a primarily indie and rock festival, Primavera Sound has grown to become one of the world’s best-known musical occasions, catering to all styles and tastes. And it’s big business – sponsors this year include Santander bank and Amazon Music. Which brings with it a big responsibility. As they grow, major festivals like Primavera are having a massive impact on national and local music scenes, for better and worse.

Playing early on day three at the amphitheatre-like Cupra stage, Lisabö offered the sort of raw post-rock – imagine a Basque-language …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead but with two drummers and loud – that’s become rarer at Primavera Sound. Lisabö, formed a quarter century ago, are true DIY-ers, self-producing and releasing records on an independent label run by singer and guitarist Javi Manterola.

Since first playing here in 2007, not long after Primavera moved to its current seaside location, Javi has seen the festival expand and change almost beyond recognition. But he believes it stands out from other festivals by putting quality music first, with an enduring taste for alternative acts. “Obviously they’ve adapted to the times too,” Javi tells me. “But I think the spirit that provided the original germ for Primavera – they’re still keeping that alive. Or at least they’re trying.”

While Javi can’t fault Primavera Sound, he notes that the Basque Country’s smaller equivalent, Bilbao’s BBK Live, is run by a company that has been heavily criticised for failing to support local music scenes. "For me personally, I don't like the way they work because they're trying to monopolise everything and make every offering identical no matter where it is. At the end of the day what that does is harm music." Apart from BBK Live, the company, Last Tour, is taking over or launching festivals across Spain, which Javi believes is killing off local initiative and identity. "With BBK Live, it could be in Bilbao or in Copenhagen, right?"

Later on day three, Madrid-formed buzz band of the moment Alcalá Norte found themselves near the top of the bill on the smaller Steve Albini stage – despite having only just released their debut album. “It was our first time [playing Primavera Sound], and the second time at any kind of festival,” Alvaro, the band’s young singer, tells me later.

Enlivening a late-night crowd with their driving Cure-esque bass hooks and post-punk vibes, vocals half-sung, half-barked in Spanish, Alcalá Norte attracted a mixed crowd of not-just locals to their set.

“It was exciting to see the amount of people who came,” says Alvaro, even if some of their foreign spectators were impressed. “One listener wrote on Telegram that we sounded like shit, that we don't know how to play and that I was terrible,” Alvaro recalls, seeming to take the criticism in good spirits. “He asked Primavera Sound to please not book us again.”

One disgruntled punter notwithstanding, Primavera might have just helped Alcalá Norte launch their career – they’re about to embark on a 40-date tour. “For bands of our size, the festivals are the icing on the cake that makes a tour of venues sustainable,” Alvaro says. Where he sees problems are in bigger bands being made to sign exclusivity agreements with festivals, which can harm local venues – something you hear people complain about in Barcelona. “The festivals have to take care of the venues like a professional football team takes care of its youth team,” opines Alvaro. “Look at all the glory that Iniesta, Messi, Busquets and Xavi brought to FC Barcelona. There will always be room to sign Ronaldinho.” In Primavera’s case, the festival has expanded beyond the main site to hold concerts around multiple Barcelona venues.

Probably like most foreign attendees, I never used to pay much attention to the ratio of local to international acts. But watching Barcelona-based artists like Arca – whose triumphant late-night set of futuristic Spanish-language club music provided the perfect antidote to a nostalgic Pulp performance earlier on day one – I was reminded how music from here is now on the global map (even if Arca is originally from Venezuela). Last year Barcelona’s own Rosalia headlined the festival to universal acclaim.

Primavera Sound did not make Arca or Rosalia. But the festival has helped propel other local acts beyond Spain’s borders. Núria Graham, who Primavera championed from early in her career, has toured Europe and the US in recent years.

There’s even a bespoke imprint, Primavera Labels, which counts local acts on its roster, one of whom, the propulsive indie-pop outfit Renaldo & Clara, played the festival for the third time this year. Clara Viñals, the group’s Catalan-singing frontwoman, says that signing with Primavera helped them reach a lot more people: “It was a real boost for the band,” she says. “They’re wonderful people and it’s a pleasure to work with them.”

Although Primavera Sound’s size poses a challenge to the local music scene, it’s a testament to the organisers that Catalan and Spanish-language artists like Renaldo & Clara and Ferran Pelau are holding firm on the bill. As Ferran points out, “It's a clear statement of intent when a festival that's so big like Primavera Sound says that this local artist from Barcelona has the quality to play for a really international crowd.”

Darren Loucaides writes about politics and tech for Wired, Guardian, Open Democracy and more. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenLoucaides and find more of his work here. You can find his pieces in the DiS archive including reviews of previous Primavera Sound festivals here.