Our Primavera Report
Backstage portraits and scenes from the festival
Primavera Sound is a music festival hosted in a large industrial park on the coast of Spain, just outside of Barcelona city center. Its lineup leans international, and its sets run all through the night to sunrise, at which point many festival goers wade into the ocean for a morning swim.
We sent a photographer to experience the festival and take portraits of the performing artists. This was their experience.
DAY 01
The festival grounds were swarming with people when I arrived, piling out of trains, buses and Ubers. Strong winds were blowing in from the ocean, but it was warm, sunny, and no one seemed to be worried about the rain in the forecast.
My first subject was Six Sex, who was inside the press lounge drinking yerba mate while her manager chain smoked. He’s a massive guy, and she’s barely 5’5.
We started shooting with her standing in front of a white tarp, and within two minutes she was crawling around on the artificial turf. She’s a natural.
As we wrapped up with Six Sex, the rain started. People were relatively undeterred, quickly donning their multicolored plastic ponchos. Soon, the wind picked up as well, whipping off the sea and blowing the rain sideways.
Oklou’s set was during the rain, when some of the main stages were shut down, so the crowd was huge. I was wearing a tank top and shorts, it was pouring rain and had dropped at least 10 degrees in temperature. Pretty miserable.
The weather created problems for a lot of sets. Mac Demarco, Alex G, and Massive Attack were all cancelled due to rain. Doja cat crashed out on IG live, promised fans she would do a free concert that night in Barcelona, then had to backtrack for legal reasons. It was chaos both inside and outside the festival, but people were still hanging around.
We left around 11:30pm to get dinner before Six Sex’s set, scheduled for 4:30am. We found a place to eat, the only restaurant in the area still open. Six people wearing “Geese Crew” shirts were the only other people in the restaurant.
After two hours we headed back for Six Sex’s set. As soon as she ran out, the smell of poppers wafted through the crowd. Everyone knew every word to every song. She performs completely alone with a twin mattress on the stage that she jumps around on. When I left at 6am, the festival grounds were still packed.
Day 02
First I linked up with Loukeman and his manager to grab some photos after his set. Bratstar was back there chatting with Luke, so I shot with her before her set too. A couple fans came up to Loukeman for selfies while we were chatting. Everyone was super psyched on his set.
I tried to grab some portraits before Fakemink went on, but I was 30 seconds late. When he ran out the crowd lost their minds. For someone who gets slack online for not having much stage presence, he had the crowd hooked the entire set.
Rian Brazil, who produces for Fakemink, was backstage with his team, and I ended up chatting with his manager for a while. Rian and I shot some photos while Mink performed. Good people.
Half an hour after his show, the Fakemink team were rushing out when Mink came up to me, dapped me up, and then stood in front of the nearest wall so we could shoot. I wasn’t into the spot because of this crazy purple light overhead, but his manager decided we weren’t going anywhere. He hit a couple poses, dapped me up again, and dipped. Didn’t say a word.
Debasement was about to go on so we ran over to the pulse stages to meet them and hang a bit before their set. I shot some photos with them before they went on, they were super energetic, the energy really carried into their on stage performance. U.R. Trax hopped in for a couple of the last photos as well, and sang a couple songs with them during the set.
Pink Pantheress had the largest crowd I saw of the entire festival. People climbed on top of signs, lamp posts, anything to get a good view of the stage.
There is a general juxtaposition between the strict security upon entry to Primavera, and the freedom of the festival-goers once they are inside the doors. As an American, it was the first large scale entertainment venue I’ve attended where the alcohol and food was relatively affordable. $7 for a beer. People in Spain will gripe about how expensive that is, but at most venues in the U.S. I pay $18.
Day 03
I got to the festival around 6pm so that I could see Grace Ives. After Grace’s set I headed to the press lounge to plan my day, and grab a coffee. I drank at least 4 coffees a day during the festival, so I could stay up until the 6am sunrise sets.
In the press lounge I started spam texting anyone I knew that could line up some artists for me to shoot. I worked my way into a group chat with Rusowsky and Ralphie Choo’s manager. I believe those two are the face of everything good in contemporary Spanish music. Their blend of house, bedroom pop, flamenco, and cumbia feels very global but also extremely Spanish, which is a difficult middle ground to achieve.
I saw the Rusowsky vans pull up, and his entire band spilled out wearing matching beige track suits, their hair styled in jet black bobs. Rusowsky had a ginger bob and wore a white track suit encrusted with jewels. “Daisy” was spelled out on the back. Security gave me a hard time because I couldn’t technically be in the backstage area where I shot Rusowsky & Ralphie, but after I left they were all dapping me up. It was confusing, but at least they let me in to get the shots.
I had some time to kill so I saw Haloplus+ in a tiny underground auditorium hosted by Levi’s. Their experimentation and exploration of sound was on full display during their show, as the three of them rotated between guitars, an array of pedals, and a keyboard.
Later I was in the artists’ area at Peggy Gou with another photographer friend. We followed her up to the back of the stage and all of a sudden we were ushered onto the front of the stage with 25 of her friends and a handful of dancers. Confused about how or why I got there but definitely not complaining.
Around 6am Peggy’s set wrapped up, just as the sun rose over the Mediterranean. For the third morning in a row, people filed out of the festival grounds and went straight into the ocean.
Written by Layton Miles Davis (@laytonmiles__)