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

Primavera Sound

will

continue to be linked to

Barcelona

at least until 2027. One of the festival's directors, Gabi Ruiz, announced this Saturday, at the press conference to take stock of a historic edition that has brought together half a million people, that the Next week the agreement will be signed with the City Council.

Now, the macrofestival will return to the pre-pandemic format of a single weekend in Barcelona.

The second will move to

Madrid

in 2023 with the idea of ​​staying there "forever".

"Another thing is that they kick us out," joked the head of the festival.

This means that in 2023 Primavera Sound will have a double venue: from June 1 to 3 it will be held at the

Parc del Fòrum

in Barcelona and from June 8 to 10 it will move to the

City of Rock in Arganda del Rey

, in Madrid.

"We have not blackmailed Barcelona," said Ruiz bluntly, who thanked the mayor, Ada Colau, for her predisposition to solve the problems that have arisen for the continuity of a macro-event that does not want to give up capacity or a calendar.

Ruiz has been very clear: "Our will is to stay in Barcelona because we are a Barcelona festival."

In this sense, he has assured that a large part of the success of Primavera Sound is due to its poster, but without forgetting the city of Barcelona itself, which is "a global claim".

In his own words, "the mayor told us that she doesn't want us to leave."

Ruiz has insisted that after the initial disagreement there is no economic issue because the festival does not receive subsidies and "sustains itself".

"It's a matter of wills."

Hence, on the contrary, the director charged against the City Council of

Sant Adrià de Besòs

.

"If it continues to strangle us, it will be difficult to do it with this format," warned the director of Primavera, who has insinuated political reasons after the difficulties placed on the festival.

"They were on terrorism alert 4 and it looked like Baghdad," Ruiz summarized.

"My technicians say they have overreacted."

Specifically, the problem with Sant Adrià de Besós can be summed up in one: capacity.

As Ruiz has revealed, there was a plan to house 30,000 people and, however, the consistory at the last minute denied the permit.

"Insisting they left us 15,000", explained Ruiz, who has made it clear that if the festival loses this space, the Parc del Fòrum will have to be redesigned, which is "very complicated".

For Primavera Sound there is also the question of not wanting to decrease in Barcelona in order to grow in Madrid.

But this is not the only problem that Primavera Sound faces in maintaining the current concept.

The other great difficulty has to do with the dates: "The first week of June is the one that most interests us because the bands in May are in the United States."

This will be a setback in 2024: the first weekend of June starts on Saturday the 1st and Primavera Sound would have to start on Thursday.

Even so, Ruiz hopes to find a solution, for which he has also requested a single interlocutor with the city councils of Barcelona, ​​Sant Adrià de Besòs and the Port Authority, the three entities affected by the location of the festival: "Each one goes for their side and it becomes difficult".

For example, the festival would need one more week of assembly because it works "at full throttle with very tired people."

So, for now, Primavera Sound will maintain its Catalan label until 2027. But "if the festival can't be held here, we'll have to do it somewhere else," said Ruiz, who stressed that for the first time it will make the leap to

Los Angeles

,

Sao Paulo

,

Santiago de Chile

and

Buenos Aires

.

As for the avalanche of criticism received by the organization, with crowds especially on the first day of the festival, those responsible have sung the

mea culpa

.

"What happened on Thursday was frankly unexpected, with a massive influx of people very soon like never before, for which we apologize," admitted another of the directors, Alfonso Lanza, who referred to the controversy over the capacity limitation of the final concert of the

Brunch On The Beach

.

Although the organization has reacted to criticism by scheduling two other farewell parties, Lanza has recalled that "it is not new that people cannot access the entire offer."

But "we are no strangers to frustration."

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