Charli XCX, who performed on the first day of Primavera Sound 2022, at St Jerome's Laneway Festival on February 08, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia.
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Primavera Sound festival organizers have apologised for problems with bar services on the first day of the event. The three-day festival, which takes place in Barcelona, Spain, features a line-up including Tame Impala, Gorillaz, Charli XCX, and Tyler, The Creator. However, the first day of the festival was marred by many festivalgoers taking to Twitter to complain of overcrowding, a lack of access to water, key travel lanes being open only to VIPs, and hour-long queues to get served at the bar. As is now customary of any festival failing to meet basic needs, talk of Fyre Festival is in the air.
On Friday morning Primavera organizers said they were "aware of the problems in the bar services" and that they are "working tirelessly" to fix the issues. Day two of the festival will bring headline sets from Jamie xx, Caribou, and The National plus appearances from Earl Sweatshirt, Beck, Mogwai, Little Simz, Wet Leg, and more. The Strokes were due to headline but were forced to pull out due to a COVID case in their ranks.
Today marks the second day of Primavera Sound. We are aware of the problems in the bar services yesterday and we apologize for them. We are working tirelessly to solve them so that we can all enjoy the coming days as we deserve. See you this afternoon.
— Primavera Sound (@Primavera_Sound) June 3, 2022
See below for a collection of complaints from those who are on site at the Spanish festival.
The FADER has reached out for comment.
.@Primavera_Sound is not safe. Oversold, no water access points, crushes/bottlenecks everywhere making it near impossible to get from stage to stage. Unsure what can be done to fix this by tomorrow but it was by far the worst festival experience I’ve ever had.
— David Thorp (@DavidThorp) June 2, 2022
Fucking hell. @Primavera_Sound feels sold way over-capacity. Just had a dangerous situation down at the main stage where nobody could move and were pressed together - had to jump the gate to the VIP section to get out!
— Matthew Crossin (@MattCrossin) June 2, 2022
the lack of access to water at Primavera is negligent and I’m extremely concerned that something avoidable might happen. Virtually no water points, 1hr+ queues to buy €3 water which they remove the lids from so you can’t even try and stockpile a few in your bag to dance safely. https://t.co/mVIBpcJBHn
— Fergal Kinney (@fergal_41) June 3, 2022
You need to start giving out bottles of water to people for free. You don’t let people bring drinks in and it’s at least an hour wait to get served at most bars and there are only two water taps. It’s fucking shit, and fucking dangerous.
— George Hayes (@Georgemarkhayes) June 2, 2022
Hey @Primavera_Sound do you have any idea how depressing it is to have waited for two years to come to your festival, spending the best part of £2000 pounds on tickets / accommodation / flights & seeing the absolute mess you've made of the organisation for this first weekend?
— Not Andre 2999 (@orange_peel85) June 2, 2022
#primaverasound waited 45 mins for a drink. Moved 1 metre. @Primavera_Sound pic.twitter.com/QhwzKEMlSy
— 44soy (@44soy44) June 2, 2022
I’ve loved @Primavera_Sound for years but today it’s just been too much. Oversold, understaffed and only one (?!) water point. It’s 21 degrees at 1am ffs. Queuing for over half an hour to buy drinks inc water isn’t good enough.
— Keri Kennedy (@beadyface) June 2, 2022
Everything sucks abt @Primavera_Sound this year except the curation & artists. So oversold, random cancellations unannounced, INSANE lines at every bar, clueless bar staff, terrible access to BITS, faulty app that breaks. What happened to the best music fest in the world? #sad
— GBE (@plasticaisle) June 2, 2022
Hey @Primavera_Sound can I get some water? 🥵 It’s all getting a bit Fyre festival right now here at #PrimaveraSound2022 🥵🥵😬
— Rachel is on holiday ✌️ (@RKKLSilverlight) June 2, 2022
.@Primavera_Sound you need to fix your water situation. people are in line for hours literally begging for water and it’s extremely dangerous
— alt ms. frizzle ☻ (naive melody) (@juliaef_) June 3, 2022
Primavera pros so far:
— Ally (@allystives) June 3, 2022
- Great lineup
Cons:
- Two cancelled headliners without replacement
- Free water unavailable, can't bring your own
- Hours long bar queues
- Crowds so compact I'm shocked there wasn't a crush
- Sound is quiet enough that conversations are louder
They’ll do a documentary on how fucking shite @Primavera_Sound is. Two hour beer queues, main stage sound is pathetically quiet. You’ve totally fucked the weekend, you absolute wankers. Give me my money back.
— Donnacha McCormack (@dunta90) June 2, 2022