Primavera Sound will not be returning to Madrid in 2024

Back in May, Primavera Sound Festival happened on the same weekend and with the same lineups, in both Madrid and Barcelona, similar to how Reading and Leeds operates. In an interview Stereogum, the festival co-director Alfonso Lanza explained that they had always been wanting to operate a festival in Madrid, though it was never feasible until 2023.

"We have also wanted to propose something in Madrid for years. It’s a city we work with all year round with tours, and where we already did editions of our small autumn festival Primavera Club. It has not been possible, for different reasons, to make a Primavera Sound similar in size and ambition to the one in Barcelona until this year," he said.

Unfortunately the inaugural edition of Primavera Sound Madrid got off to a rocky start, with first day, which was due to feature headline sets from Blur and Halsey, being cancelled due to dangerous weather conditions. Whilst Halsey's failed to make any other arrangements, Blur were able to schedule an intimate performance in replacement of their cancelled headline set.

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Primavera Sound Festival has been a staple of Barcelona since 2001, and it’s earned a reputation as one of the world’s greatest annual music festivals, successfully expanding to Porto, Portugal in 2012, and eventually branching out Los Angeles, Santiago, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo.

Unfortunately, the festival will not be returning to Madrid. A statement from the organisers read: "The expectations we had were not fulfilled and the experience of the festivalgoers was not the desired one. The conditions are not right for Madrid to have a Primavera Sound as it deserves in 2024."

"Although both the city of Madrid and the whole region welcomed us with open arms, with a warmth that was mirrored in the institutions, the cultural agents and of course the audience, the external difficulties that the festival had to face in the final stretch of the pre-production gave rise to one of the most complicated events that Primavera Sound has ever had to face," the statement continued.

Primavera Sound Festival reveal that Madrid "does not have a site able to host an event of this magnitude and format in terms of audience demands, production requirements, and musical show", and wasn't able to meet logistical expectations.

“As a consequence, although the evaluation of the festival was more than satisfactory on a musical level, the expectations we had were not fulfilled and the experience of the festivalgoers due to several logistical aspects was not the desired one".

#BREAKING: Primavera Sound music festival will not hold Madrid edition in 2024

Organizers to focus on Barcelona and Porto shows after "most complicated edition" in Spanish capitalhttps://t.co/jqar19wKMB

— Catalan News (@catalannews) July 21, 2023