The Strokes and Lorde burst a Primavera Sound punctuated by criticism of the organization

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on its way to dying of success

?

festival

intended this year to throw the house out the window to celebrate its twentieth edition in style and say goodbye to the pandemic with the return of live music.

With figures that exceed what could be considered rational: half a thousand concerts, 11 uninterrupted days of music, 160,000 square meters of venue... The numbers are so overwhelming that they could hardly be managed.

So if the criticism of the organization already occurred with the start of a festival that was about to collapse on the first day, its closure threatens to pour gasoline on the fire of controversy with the final event of

.

And then the complaint of each day: overflowing capacity, endless queues, poor visibility of the main stages, poor sound...

The macrofestival has once again tested its own limits this Friday with two of the most anticipated performances.

The main claims of the day were

, who had not yet been on stage in Barcelona, ​​and

, who should have done so last weekend but ended up unsubscribing due to a Covid infection in the group.

This setback with one of the main headliners led the organization to offer people who had their ticket the possibility of exchanging it for one for this Friday, with which the attendance was massive.

Floods and floods of people to see the rock band.

With Lorde it was not so much the influx as the enthusiasm that his faithful put from minute one.

"A pleasure to be here by the ocean," he began by way of greeting to soon unleash his voice gush.

No artifice.

The New Zealand singer, songwriter and producer (and precocious artist to boot) wowed everyone with her less is more and graceful staging.

Even with that air of mystery that she puts on everything she touches.

And surely without looking for it.

Royals

, his first single and much acclaimed yesterday, gave him that overwhelming success that has taken years to digest.

She has finally done it, with that ode to freedom (starting with her own) that is her third album,

.

A luminous Lorde (sheathed in a very tight black jumpsuit, yes), under a giant sun on the Pull&Bear stage, demonstrated at Primavera Sound why she is the closest thing to the antithesis of the banal and the insubstantial.

Perhaps because of the influence of a poet mother.

Growing up among poetry can only lead an artist like her to claim that pop doesn't have to be silly.

And that, as she confessed, this is her favorite time of the year.

She was noticed.

The Gummy Corner by Pull&Bear.EM

After Lorde got off the stage, it was the turn of The Strokes.

There was expectation to meet again with the American rock band led by

, who burst in behind a pair of sunglasses after 11 p.m.

It had been seven years since they had set foot in Primavera Sound and critics have already pointed to their album released in 2020,

, as the most outstanding in many years.

And that The Strokes has had to deal with the always perverse label of "the saviors" (of rock, in this case) and, why not say it, with the self-destructive attempts of its own members.

If in the past they experimented with solo projects, in the present they have a good time together.

Simply.

And that, as a Casablancas joker sang, "when I look around, I don't want to see you, I don't follow the advice of fools, I never listen to you."

to start with.

And bad decisions are what they are throwing in the face of the organization.

The festival will take stock this Saturday of what was also the last edition based solely in Barcelona, ​​since the idea is to set foot in

in 2023. But, for now, it has faced another wave of criticism.

The controversy of the end of the party comes from the Brunch On The Beach.

The concert with which this Primavera Sound was going to end on Sunday will leave many people out despite the fact that the show was included in the season ticket.

However, the organization's announcement explaining that in reality it could only be accessed by prior reservation has once again set the public on fire.

"Access is very limited," they warned from the festival on social networks.

The problem came when tickets sold out in an hour.

The complaints were immediate, to which Primavera Sound responded that the concert "has always been subject to the capacity of the event."

But there is a campaign even on Change.org: "We have paid a ticket for an event that we will not be able to enter," lamented those affected.

End of the festival idyll?

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