After more than twenty years of existence, the Primavera Sound Festival maintains a success story with Barcelona, as the Deputy Mayor for Culture Jordi Martí declared at the time. But, in this long history, there have also been moments of tension and friction between the organizers and the City Council. After a few first editions at Poble Espanyol, the transfer of the festival to Forum site it calmed the protests of the neighbors who were already complaining then about the crowds and the noise. The consolidation in the new space allowed the event to grow exponentially (until it became, last year, the most crowded in Spain, with a total attendance of some 500,000 people) and it seemed, at first, that the very location of the Fòrum would lessen the demands of the residents. One of the most critical moments in the relationship between Primavera Sound and the City Council occurred at the end of 2021 when the organizers, who had already scheduled two weekends for 2022 (as compensation for the cancellations of the previous two years due to the pandemic ) proposed to continue in the future with the same dynamics, a point that the administration opposed precisely to avoid complaints. Then, the trial balloon was raised in the form of a threat to move the whole festival to Madrid, a circumstance that today has been solved with a Solomonic decision: one weekend at the Forum and another in Arganda del Rey, in a camped near the capital.
This edition, number 21 of the festival, therefore arrives in the same conditions as before the pandemic and with a reduced capacityeither. But with very similar business forecasts, encrypted by the organization in a global of about €350 millionbetween the concerts spread across Barcelona and the massive ones in Sant Adrià de Besós.
This is an important part of the assessment that can be made of the festival. The PS is somehow the kick-off of the summer season. In addition to the PS, we can talk about the Dream and the cruïllain the Fòrum itself, of The Nights of Barcelonain Pedralbes, from Soulin Poble Espanyol, from guitar bcn or of ShareFestival. Beneficial claims (to which can be added individual concerts, such as the recent ones from bruce springsteen either Coldplay) that also have their cost, in the form of noise problems, mobility, vibrations in buildings, overcrowding and rest of the neighborhood. Hence the protests that have been made effective these days at the entrance of the PS by the entity Stop Concerts, with the support of the FAVB. They ask, as a minimum, that the notable sound impact be limited to below 90 decibels and that, in the immediate future, the performances not be held at night and that they consider moving these events to lots in the metropolitan area without affecting the citizens. That is the prevailing model in Madrid. In Barcelona, on the other hand, the concept of urban festivals is incompatible with a decision like this. A balance must be found between this activity and the right to rest, but Barcelona has become a benchmark for musical-cultural tourism at an international level. And this model of attracting visitors, in the face of decretionist approaches, it does not seem that he has been questioned by the results of the last electionsquite the contrary.