The Primavera Sound, the most massive festival in all of Spain

Primavera Sound became the festival with the most attendees in 2022, with more than half a million, taking a first position that before the pandemic Medusa Sunbeach, Mad Cool, and Arenal Sound easily snatched from it. A two-weekend program in Barcelona allowed it to go from 220,000 attendees to 501,000. This 2023, it will benefit from the double venue between the Catalan and Madrid capitals, starting from May 29 to June 4 in Barcelona and ending from June 5 to 11 in Madrid.

The festival, born from the hands of the people responsible for Sala Apolo, is nourished by a varied local musical fabric, with others like Sónar also growing, going from 105,000 attendees in 2019 to 122,000 in 2022. In addition, both festivals are characterized by a very loyal audience, with 35% and 32% of their audience, respectively, repeating year after year. This is according to the third edition of Oh Holy Festivals! '23, a study prepared by IPG Mediabrands and Ticketmaster.

Primavera Sound and Sónar are the two festivals among the 15 most crowded in all of Spain, but Catalonia brings together many more, such as Cruïlla, the defunct Festival Jardins Pedralbes now converted into Alma Festival, Vida, Festival Jardins de Terramar, Canet Rock, Festival de Cap Roig, Festival de la Porta Ferrada, and Sons del Món are some of a long list that continues to grow. An increasingly varied offer that is concentrated during the summer, but also becomes destigmatized, like Guitar BCN and the Voll-Damm Festival de Jazz de Barcelona.

In fact, Catalonia leads the national ranking, with 174 festivals, a figure that represents 20% of the almost 900 that were programmed throughout the country last year. They are followed by the Community of Madrid and Andalusia, with 109 and 108 festivals, respectively. The three together account for 45% of all festivals, with data from 2021.

The variety of festivals is accompanied by strong institutional support, with the Generalitat being the third public administration that has closed the most agreements, with a total of 18, only behind Xacobeo (22) and the Xunta de Galicia (21). Four positions further down, in seventh place, is the Ajuntament de Barcelona, with eight agreements signed; in tenth, the Diputación de Girona, with six, and in 15th position, the Diputación de Barcelona, with four and tied with other institutions such as the Madrid City Council. In total, 292 agreements were signed with administrations in 2022, a 64% increase compared to 2019.

It is not only public institutions that support music festivals; brands also do, especially beverage brands, which account for 79% of advertising. Coca-Cola is the biggest spender, with about thirty agreements closed in 2022, followed by Jagermeister, with 25, and Damm, with 24, three more compared to pre-pandemic figures. In addition to the brewery, other Catalan brands present are CaixaBank and Mesoestetic. The latter debuted in 2022 with four agreements.