When the days start to get longer, music lovers in these parts begin to pay attention to the big open-air festivals that decorate our vital landscape. An agenda that begins with the Primavera Sound, which will occupy the Barcelona Fòrum between May 30 and June 2 with more than 160 artists on its lineup. Alberto Guijarro is one of the four co-directors of Primavera, which this year celebrates its eighteenth edition and, therefore, reaches "adulthood."
Beyond headliners like Björk, The National, or Arctic Monkeys, what other major vector would you highlight regarding this year's program?
We continue to strive to have more black music at the festival: more hip hop, more R&B, more neo soul... We believe it's worth it, because this way we attract a younger audience. For three years now, we've noticed that people in their twenties are joining, although we hold the festival in the middle of exam season and that's a problem for part of this audience: we noticed it on social media when we announced the 2018 lineup, ha, ha, ha! Now we have a very diverse audience in terms of age: there's approximately 33% of people aged 18 to 25, 33% from 25 to 35, and 33% from 35 onwards. We think it's a very cool balance.
The first edition of the festival, in Poble Espanyol, gathered 7,000 people. You've been at the Fòrum since 2005, and last year you registered over 200,000 attendees. Are you approaching the growth ceiling?
This year we have still increased the capacity by about 5,000 people per day, but yes, due to the characteristics of the space, we are approaching the ceiling. In fact, in 2012 we started holding NOS Primavera Sound in Porto precisely to deflate the one in Barcelona a bit. We are not motivated to just cram people in. We are more concerned with comfort, and having a program where, in the end, we notice there are two festivals: there's a segment of the audience that focuses mainly on the headliners and another that moves around smaller stages to discover new things. And we are also creating a third profile, which we have been promoting since last year, which is electronic music.
Recalling a bit, at Primavera we have seen concerts of African music, flamenco, Catalan song, Brazilian music, experimental, contemporary... These are not typical genres for a big festival.
It is true that we started from a very specific scene, but we immediately understood that we couldn't pigeonhole ourselves, that we had to open up. And I think the public has been accompanying us, although at some point we also received criticism. I remember the year we brought Wilco and Devendra Banhart to Poble Espanyol someone told us that the festival "smelled like a cow," that it was too hippie, but in the end everyone has ended up listening to these artists. There were also those who raised a fuss about bringing Lluís Llach. I believe that festivals should have a point of risk and provocation. And, as I was saying, the public keeps responding. This is especially noticeable with the new generations. Young people listen to a few pop rock songs, a few hip hop ones... They have broken stylistic barriers and also temporal ones: sometimes they listen to the Doors and, even if they don't know what era they are from, they don't care and they enjoy it.
More than half of Primavera attendees are foreigners. How do you explain this?
We think there are two reasons. The first is the programming. We have noticed that it has a lot of international prestige among the media, industry professionals, and the artists themselves. An anecdote: this year we are bringing Jane Birkin, and in an email queue that slipped out of her office, we read a conversation between the agent and the manager that said "we have to go to Primavera because it will open doors for us." Jane Birkin! For many musicians, it's important to come to the festival. The other reason, obviously, is Barcelona. This is not a camping festival where you spend three days without leaving the venue. Coming to an urban festival in a friendly city, with good weather, with the possibility of walking around and visiting things, or going to the beach, is also part of this success.
What impact does the festival leave on the city?
The last study we have is from a couple of years ago and talks about an impact of more than eleven million euros, calculated from the average expenditure made by each attendee on accommodation, catering, transport...
Surely there is also a non-tangible impact. I wonder if initiatives you have launched over time, such as Primavera als Bars, Primavera als Barris, Primavera a Casa Teva, free concerts and others, are along these lines.
Look, we started doing all these things outside the venue to feel part of the city's scene. To strengthen small spaces, to give an outlet to "demo" bands, to support the work done by neighborhood cultural centers, to show different parts of the city and different ways of enjoying music... That makes us feel welcomed and, at the same time, to welcome. Afterwards, we can develop a social discourse that is very good, but the first impulse was that.