A sofa. It's hard to imagine a less festive object. It is, however, the first image attendees encounter when they walk through the doors of Cruïlla. Before the stages, the guitars, the flames, and the first high-pitched chords, a huge yellow sofa welcomes them. Some sit for a few seconds, some take the opportunity to snap the obligatory photo before sharing it on social media, and some leave it behind almost without looking, more focused on arriving on time for the first stage of the day. In the background, the motto with which the music festival celebrates its 16th edition stands out: "Cruïlla is home".
At first glance, the image seems almost contradictory. Cruïlla speaks of home and comfort, but no one arrives at Parc del Fòrum with the intention of staying seated on the sofa. The first attendees arrive with looks meticulously planned, designed to show off between stages and not to stay on the sofa. The idea of home that Cruïlla proposes is, thus, another: not that of a space to stay still, but where the rhythm of the festival forces one to move from one stage to another, to choose between overlapping concerts and to jump to the rhythm of the music.
And the first day of the festival already opens the door to this particular idea of home. A home where, in a matter of hours and a few meters, one can go from the delicacy of Galician Sen Senra to the intensity of Renée Rapp or the energy of Halsey. Three very different universes that, far from clashing, coexist naturally within the same venue.
Still far from the crowds that will arrive on Friday and Saturday —in an edition in which the festival aims to gather 75,000 attendees over the four days—, with a younger audience and without having fully deployed all its stages, the first day of Cruïlla —marked by high temperatures—, functions as a first tasting. Because, with artists like Greta, Renée Rap, or Halsey, it already shows one of the festival's constants since its beginnings: the desire to bring very different proposals together in the same space. A constant that has been part of Cruïlla since it was born in 2005 in Mataró, in a series of concerts linked to the Casa de la Música, before making the leap to the Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona. The intention is, in short, to become a true cruïlla (crossroads) where local and international artists, established names and new voices, and even different generations within a predominantly local audience meet.
On the stages, this idea of a crossroads was already unfolding on the first day. A first day in which the new Catalan scene has had its own voice with Greta —the third of the Farelo sisters, who has brought a personal proposal to the Fòrum that travels from samba or electronic music to the most emotional ballads— and Xicu, who, while continuing behind the drums of Ginestà, has also begun to occupy the center of the stage with his project as a singer.
Beyond the Catalan scene, the first day also gave space to other local voices, such as that of Galician Sen Senra, with an intimate and emotional proposal. With a melancholic pose, sitting practically throughout the performance and with a glass of white wine in hand, the musician offered a calm and intimate concert, far from the large displays of lights, fires, and effects that arrived later.
A crossroads of scenes and generations
As the night progressed, the first day of Cruïlla unfolded its most spectacular and international dimension. Firstly with Renée Rapp, one of the new voices of American pop, and later with the energy of Halsey, who demonstrated her evolution from the fresh pop she had accustomed fans to a decade ago —with songs that were also present during the performance, such as Closer or Colors— towards a more rock and energetic style, accompanied by flames and a gothic scenography that simulated a medieval castle.
In a festival concert, where schedules are usually meticulously planned and artists chain songs with hardly any time to stop and talk to the audience, Halsey decided to break that intense rhythm to explain her connection with Barcelona. The American recalled that it is one of the cities she has visited the most, where she also got engaged to her future husband, and which she has always admired for the "culture of respect and freedom" she associates with it. A city that, without being her home, she has always felt close to. And perhaps it is in these words that the sofa at the entrance takes on another meaning: the idea of home that runs through this edition of Cruïlla does not speak so much of a physical place as of a feeling, that of finding one's own space even if you come from outside. A feeling that the festival also conveys on stage, with local and international artists sharing the bill, different generations and very diverse ways of understanding music.
And this same coexistence —or cruïlla space— that has characterized the first day will continue during the next days of the festival. Between today and Saturday, big international names with a long trajectory, such as Pixies, David Byrne, Garbage or Two Door Cinema Club, will pass through the Cruïlla stages, along with Catalan artists such as Alizzz, Rigoberta Bandini, Sidonie, Mishima or Els Pets. A program in which local artists are not relegated to the first slots of the day or to the smaller stages, but share space on the main stages. In this edition, there is also space for surprises, such as Arde Bogotá, a group that until now had been hidden within the Cruïlla lineup under the name of Bigger Splash and that has finally been revealed as one of the names that will be part of this mix of scenes and generations.
The idea of cruïlla, however, goes beyond music. Between one concert and another, the audience can end up battling in a dance duel with a humanoid robot or discovering artistic interventions by local studios. These are proposals that share space with Cruïlla Comèdia, which continues to grow with its own program, with dance shows and artistic installations spread between stages.