A record number of visitors attended Primavera Sound’s 2024 edition, organisers have revealed.
The festival returned to Barcelona’s Parc Del Fòrum for its 22nd edition from 29 May to 2 June, headlined by Pulp, Vampire Weekend, Justice, Lana Del Rey, The National, Disclosure, SZA, PJ Harvey, Mitski and Charli XCX.
In total, the weekend’s 253 concerts drew an overall attendance of 268,000, including 130,000 unique visitors – 15,000 more than last year. Fans attended from 134 countries, with more than half (59%) coming from outside Spain.
“This makes us the biggest festival in Spain and one of the biggest in Europe,” says Marta Pallarès, Primavera Sound’s head of press, as per Catalan News.
Pallarès adds that 40,000 ticket-holders were Barcelona residents. “We are not a festival that lives only from external visitors,” she points out.
Speaking to IQ last month, Pallarès said: “We are still one of the cheapest festivals compared to our direct competitors. The median price is around €280 if you compare early bird up to the last batch of tickets – €5 cheaper than last year. Taking into account recession and inflation, it’s quite impressive.
“We are very well aware of the fact that it’s not easy times for anyone financially. People are choosing to spend their time and money with us so we have to work till we can give them the best experience. I always like to say that we work all year long to give the audience the best weekend of that year.”
“Primavera Sound is the second most economically important event in Barcelona, after Mobile World Congress”
Meanwhile, co-director Alfonso Lanza predicts the festival’s economic impact on the city will be in the region of €200 million, up from €180m in 2023.
“Primavera Sound is the second most economically important event in Barcelona, after Mobile World Congress,” he says.
He adds that festival staff pulled out all the stops to minimise disruption for local residents, saying they “worked particularly well” to address concerns around sound and cleanliness, adding that the people who live closest to the venue were “very satisfied with the level of control”.
Primavera Porto starts tomorrow at Parque da Cidade, Porto, with Lana Del Rey and SZA heading a female-dominated bill, as Primavera continues to pave the way for gender-balanced festival lineups. Mitski, PJ Harvey, Kim Petras, Pulp, The National, Justice, Ethical Cain and This Is The Kit are also among the 48 names due to perform at the 11th edition, scheduled for 6-8 June.
Primavera Sound Barcelona 2025 has been confirmed for 5-7 June. The festival took place in both Barcelona and Madrid in 2023, but organisers described the latter as “one of the most complicated” editions of Primavera Sound and chose not to proceed with a sequel.
The brand is also returning to Latin America in 2024 after attracting close to 350,000 people across its events in the region last year. Primavera Day Montevideo will premiere on 21 November, followed by the third editions of Primavera Sound Buenos Aires (23-24 November) and São Paulo (30 November-1 December), with Primavera Day Asunción set for 29 November.
Plus, Bogotá, Lima and Santiago will again host Road to Primavera concerts.
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