At the top of the lineup, the festival has secured a handful of heavyweights who reflect the range of its audience. The Cure will bring their signature gothic presence  to Barcelona, continuing their celebrated run of large scale festival appearances and rumoured new material. Doja Cat represents the contemporary pop and hip-hop end of the spectrum, promising a high energy performance that will contrast sharply with the introspective reunion of The xx, who are returning to the stage after years away. Gorillaz, with a brand new album set for early 2026, will no doubt deliver a multimedia spectacle, while Massive Attack, making their long awaited Primavera debut, will provide a politically charged and sonically immersive experience. The headliner tier is rounded out by acts like My Bloody Valentine, who remain a touchstone for shoegaze fans.

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Beyond the top line, Primavera Sound 2026 continues its tradition of building a deep and diverse undercard. Indie and alternative music fans will find much to savour, with acts like Wet Leg, Big Thief, Slowdive, and Mac DeMarco filling the indie quota. What truly makes Primavera Sound stand out, however, is its commitment to experimentalism and global reach. Alongside the better known names are artists who push boundaries in less commercial spaces, as well as those who bring distinct cultural perspectives. Spanish acts such as Rojuu and Renaldo & Clara will provide a local touch, while international voices like Ghanaian star Amaarae underline the festival’s global approach to programming.

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In addition to the main festival dates, there will be opening and closing events to stretch the celebration further into June, giving attendees even more chances to explore new sounds. Tickets go on presale September 29 for fans and on general sale the following day, with both standard and VIP options available.

new one … work in progress … there are a few .. https://t.co/jPeNYiNVEz

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) July 10, 2022

The band played the Spanish music festival in Barcelona exactly a month before this tweet on June 10th, with Julian Casablancas from The Strokes taking to his social media to rave about their performance. Calling it the “best show i’ve seen in YEARS“, Casablancas posted a short video of The Smile, comprised of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Sons Of Kemet’s Tom Skinner, on his Instagram saying “had my mind blown, best show i’ve seen in YEARS ……The Smile – shiiiiiiit that was good. like phillip glass with miles chords with in rainbows Radiohead or something… idk. insane festival overall honestly …Tyler / Tame Impala etc so many other champions too … thank you thank you & thank you to all of it and all who came to the show“.

The Smile only just just released their debut album A Light For Attracting Attention back in May of this year on XL Recordings, so it’s somewhat surprising but exciting that they already have new music in the pipeline. Their debut peaked at No.5 on the UK Albums Chart and gained significant critical attention, with Pitchfork giving it a solid 8.6, and SPIN calling it their album of 2022, it certainly wasn’t a misstep from the kings of alternative rock.

The snippet of “Colours Fly” revealed from their performance at Primavera seems to put the song in a psychedelic desert rock kind of world, with Thom Yorke riffing over a bass guitar whilst singing “If you change your mind, I won’t be surprised, Let the colours fly“, it’s reminiscent of Angus Stone’s trippier work with side project Dope Lemon and seems to be in the band’s hypnotic sweet spot. The next time they will play live in the UK will be at All Points East Festival in London’s Victoria Park supporting Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ on Sunday the 28th of August. Aside from that they have no further UK shows booked, but a tour across Europe locked in for June and July and a tour across America booked in for November and December. Let’s hope for new music soon!

We regret to inform you that, for health reasons, PinkPantheress has been forced to cancel her performance at Primavera Sound Barcelona – Sant Adrià 2022https://t.co/PxjZMc7wnK

— Primavera Sound (@Primavera_Sound) June 10, 2022

Speaking on Twitter, Primavera Sound stated: “We regret to inform you that, for health reasons, PinkPantheress has been forced to cancel her performance.” The festival also included a statement from the artist herself, saying: “Under doctors orders, I will not be performing at Primavera this weekend due to hearing difficulties. I and my team want to express regret and apologies in the tough decision of pulling out, it comes after efforts made to amend any health issues in time didn’t prevail…I was so looking forward to delivering music to any new or existing audiences and I sincerely hope to be back on stage as soon as possible in time for summer, but to do that I need time to heal.”

Devastatingly for many eager festival-goers, The Strokes announced last week that they would not be making an appearance at Primavera Sound due to a member of the group catching COVID-19, and in addition, Bleachers have announced that they will not be playing the second weekend of the festival, on top of both Clairo and Holly Humberstone declaring that they will not be performing their scheduled sets. Replacements for these aforementioned acts have since been replaced, with the likes of Chet Faker, Mura Masa, Ferran Palau and Hurray For The Riff Raff.

According to recent reports, Primavera Sound got off to a somewhat rocky start this year, with some attendees issuing complaints regarding bar service, access to water and overcrowding on stages. One festival-goer said, according to NME: “I’ve been going to Primavera almost yearly for over a decade and last night was the worst I’ve ever seen it in terms of organisation. Insane queues for everything, overcrowding, hard to get to some stages and actually see bands, atrocious access to water. Total shitshow.”

Primavera Sound has issued a statement via their social media, commenting on the dissatisfaction from some attendees. They stated: “Today marks the second day of Primavera Sound. We are aware of the problems in the bar services yesterday and we apologise 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.”

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

Squid’s tour manager Ina Tatarko explained to the publication how the frighteningly high costs of attaining visas for the group to play in Spain has meant that they have had to pull out of impending Spanish shows later this month. She stated: “With the current visa requirements for Spain, which are basically saying that you have to pay for a work visa for £409 per person, we weren’t able to play these smaller shows because it wouldn’t have been financially feasible.”

Spanish music festival Primavera Sound were promoting Black Country New Road and Squid’s upcoming shows, and on September 23^rd, stated: “In a very delicate climate due to the COVID crisis, with promoters who have been unable to programme for the last two years and bands unable to tour internationally for the same amount of time, these costs could be the final blow for an industry on which technical teams, venues and festivals depend, as well as of course the artists from one of the countries with a huge presence on our stages.”

The reality of Brexit-especially for the UK music industry- is a very unfortunate one, particularly in regard to touring groups. As the advent of Brexit crept up in 2020, many UK groups and artists began voicing their concerns about the impact Brexit would have on touring. One issue that rose above the rest was the worrying thought of additional expenses, paperwork and the time that would go into acquiring Visas, and the challenge of shipping equipment and merchandise over to mainland Europe. Whilst around 19 EU countries have reached an agreement with the UK to supply free 90 day work visas, it seems that this issue is sadly rearing its head as the easing of COVID restrictions ushers live music back into daily life.

Over 100,000 people have signed a Change.org petition entitled “Let Touring Musicians Travel: Support Musicians Working in the EU Post-Brexit”, which calls upon the UK government and Parliament to back the idea of a Musicians’ Passport, which would ideally last a minimum of two years, be inexpensive to acquire, cover all states that are members of the EU, ensures that there is no need for additional permits, and covers road crew, technicians and other staff necessary for touring musicians. Mark Davyd, The CEO of the UK Music Venue Trust, told NME last year that Brexit’s impact on touring would only be manageable for artists who were already worldwide successes, stating; “This is basically a tax on new and emerging musicians. It’s not a tax that will have any impact on your James Blunts and Roger Daltreys. Someone will sit in an office and fill in all of their paperwork.”

Names that have also been added are Tame Impala, The Strokes and Gorillaz. Next year is going to be the festival’s twentieth anniversary and it is turning out to be the most star studded edition of it in a long time. 

On the festival’s Twitter page they have announced the line up and it features a lot of high profile artists such as Mavis Staples, Jamie XX and Little Simz. Check out the full line up below.

New names! Tickets on sale today at 11AM CEST https://t.co/dZGZ7OaQ44#CantDoWithoutYoupic.twitter.com/cKP1GYIPgn

— primavera_sound (@Primavera_Sound) June 3, 2020

Massive Attack have sold over 13 million records worldwide and have won a Brit Award, 2 Q Awards and 2 MTV VMA’s over the course of their career which cemented their position as English underground legends. But they are most well known for their single ‘Unfinished Sympathy’.

Primavera Sound Festival first took place in 2001 and has since seen it go from strength to strength. It has seen acts such as Kendrick Lamar, Lou Reed and Bon Iver play, so being included in this company is a ringing endorsement for any band. 

Watch an iconic set from the festival’s archives below;

Recently, Robert Del Naja (one half of the electronic act) has been linked with being the elusive graffiti artist Banksy. I am sure this is something he was never expecting when starting a band.

In their time, they have had two albums voted into the Top 500 albums ever by Rolling Stone magazine and had ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ voted into the top 10 songs ever by The Guardian. This goes to show that they are music legends and they will go down in history as one of the most influential acts in English electronic music. Anyway, when’s the next flight to Barcelona and who’s coming with me?

Ladies and Gentlemen, we're in orbit https://t.co/ZTZxA9zwif #primaverasound pic.twitter.com/YqF7Bj0JA6

— Primavera Sound (@Primavera_Sound) January 21, 2016

The main attraction is of course Radiohead, with it being their first festival heading in over four years. This could hopefully be a sign of things to come as well, with Radiohead having been relatively quiet for a while now, with them headlining Primavera Sound and having released their attempt at the Bond theme (see article here) all in recent months we can only hope that more appearances and music is in the future.

The Barcelona based festival is set to run from June 2nd – June 4th this summer. Other exciting names are the likes of Sigur Ros, The Last Shadow Puppets (who have very recently announced their eagerly anticipated come back) LCD Soundsystems (again recently announced their comeback, also playing at Coachella this year).

Every year Primavera Sound is regarded as one of the best festivals of the year and 2016 certainly promises more of the same, I mean even if just Radiohead were playing it’d be worth going to!

For a full list of artists performing see below:

Radiohead
LCD Soundsystem
Sigur Ros
PJ Harvey
Tame Impala
The Last Shadow Puppets
Air
Brian Wilson
Beach House
Suede
Beirut
Animal Collective
Pusha T
Action Bronson
Explosions in the Sky
Moderat
John Carpenter
Vince Staples
Drive Like Jehu
Deerhunter
Dinosaur Jr.
Richard Hawley
Kamasi Washington
Neon Indian
Battles
TY Segall and The Muggers
Julia Holter
Chairlift
Freddie Gibbs
Daughter
Jay Rock
Savages
cabaret Voltaire
Floating Points
Destroyer
Parquet Courts
Thee Oh Sees
Titus Andronicus
Tortoise
Mudhoney
Kiasmos
Robert Forster
Boredoms
Manel
Beak>
Cass McCombs
Empress of
The James Hunter Siz
Hudson Mohawke (dj set)
Algiers
Royal Headache
Shellac
Evian Christ
Dungen
Goat
Grupo De Expertos Solynieve
Ben Watt Band feat. Bernard Butler
Beach Slang
DJ Koze
Lubomyr Melnyk
Shura
Maceo Plex
Venom
Pantha du Prince
Unsane
Black Lips
Wild Nothing
Current 93
Los Chichos
Dam FunK
Roosevelt
The Chills
Holly Herndon
Six Organs of Admittance
MBongwana Star
Optimo (Espacio)
Protomartyr
Selda feat. Boom Pam
Joana Serrat
U.S. Girls
Orchestra Baobab
Alessandro Cortini
A.R. Kane
Psychic Tv/PTV3*
Ho9909
Autolux
Pxxr Gvng
Jenny Hval
Bradford Cox
Loop
Car Seat Headrest
Fasenuova
Jessy Lanza
Neil Michael Hagerty & the Howling Hex
Nao
Richard Dawson
Bardo Pond
Younghusband
White Fence
Dj Richard
Moses Sumney
Steve Gunn
Angel Witch
Andy Shauf
Julien Baker
Inspira
Alex G
SG Lewis*
Har Mar Superstar
Aliment
Cavern of Anti-Matter
C. Tangana
Mar Otra Vez*
Deradoorian*
Sheer Mag
Viva Belgrado
El Ultimo Vecino
White Reaper
Doble Plentina
Autumn Comets
Holograma
Suuns
Mueran Humanos
C+C=Maxigross
Wind Atlas
Nothing Places
Alberto Montero
Dj Coco
Islam Chipsy & eek
Univers
The Saurs
Dave P
Baby Dee
Carla*
Pajaro Jack
Cala Vento
Baywaves
Siberian Wolves
My Expanisve Awareness
Die Katapult
Twin drama
Old King Cole Younger
The Handclappers
Bearoid
Downtown Boys
Power Burkas
Big Summer
Shinkiro
Pumuky
Barry Hogan Dk
Invisible Harvey
Ran Ran Ran
Pacosan
Esperiti
Redthread
+++
Cadena
Daniel Gon