Primavera Sound Festival will take place in both Barcelona and Madrid in 2023, according to the festival’s website. The event began in Barcelona in 2001 and will be expanded later this year to include a previously scheduled Los Angeles iteration.
Primavera Sound announced last year that it would return in 2022 with a massive two-leg edition in Barcelona, which would take place over two weekends in June. It will still take place over two weekends next year, but the second will be held in Madrid.
A statement from the festival read: “The 2023 edition of Primavera Sound will once again happen over two weekends. But this time it will be held in two different Spanish cities.
“In both cities, Primavera Sound will maintain its identity as an urban festival with the Primavera a la Ciutat programme for the rest of the week. Also, in both Barcelona and Madrid, this programme will be integrated into the cultural spaces of each venue with different musical activities before the main days.”
Primavera Sound 2023 will take place in Barcelona’s Parc del Frum from June 1-3, before moving to Madrid’s Ciudad de Rock of Arganda del Rey on June 8-10 for a second phase.
“For many reasons, this double venue will not come as a surprise to those who know the history of Primavera Sound,” the festival’s statement added.
“After several years organizing the autumn festival Primavera Club both in Barcelona and Madrid and bringing an infinity of international tours to both cities all year round, making a Primavera Sound air shuttle a reality is, for us, not only a source of a great joy, but also a step forward which is as logical as it is natural.
“The landing in Madrid is just the latest chapter in our long and close relationship with the city, and also the first for everything to come: for communication and connections, for the history of a Primavera Sound that in 2023 will start in Barcelona and end in Madrid that can only benefit our audience. Double site – double excitement.”
Due to the coronavirus epidemic, the popular Barcelona event had to cancel its 2020 and 2021 editions, but it plans to return in 2022 with a massive festival featuring 11 days of live music.
Primavera will host Lorde, The Strokes, and Tame Impala this year, as well as The National, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dua Lipa, Tyler, the Creator, FKA twigs, Charli XCX, and Gorillaz. The Los Angeles iteration of Primavera Sound will take place in the LA State Historic Park on September 16-18.
James Blake, Mitski, Arca, Khruangbin, Bicep, Clairo, Darkside, King Krule, Low, PinkPantheress, Kim Gordon, Fontaines D.C., and Dry Cleaning are all set to perform, as are Arctic Monkeys, Nine Inch Nails, and Lorde.
—Aditi Manjunath