Primavera 2012

Toast

This is from one of the organisers on the English forum

Do you think that this is as easy as write here "book Pulp", "book Radiohead" or "book anything"?? and also, do you think we are doing nothing?? We are trying to get the best options we can, but unfortunately there´s only a few weeks to go, and book a band like this it takes normally around three months. We are not saying anything because we are working on it, we get KOC as a replacement in Porto and we will say what happens in Barcelona as soon as we know. I don´t know if we´ll get a replacement now, sorry.

Sounds unpromising. I'd like to think they'll give us a few freebies as a makeup or something. In other news timetables should be out today.

Fishooks12

My first Pirma, what can I expect?


Not too broke up over Bjork although I was looking forward to her. Sickened Death Grips cancelled though

Toast

It's generally pretty great. There'll always be some confusion, queuing and messing involving getting in and getting a drink but the stages are well run, sound great, have excellent lighting. They've all unique locations within the forum and the surroundings are like some crazy sci-fi landscape.

The start of the days usually feel a bit tame but around about midnight they allow night visitors in for the DJs for cheaper and the crowd becomes much more local and less hipstery and generally much crazier. Things can go on till early am so realise that midnight is usually only half way through and not when things are closing up like other places.

Toast

Apparently this year they're using cash on the bars and not the token/card system of past years. This should hopefully mean getting a drink will be smoother though I suspect it could also translate to slightly longer queues at bars. It is one less thing to worry about anyway.

Someone has put the timetable into the excellent clashfinder system developed for Glastonbury. I believe the end times are still only estimates but it is pretty handy for getting an idea of what is going to clash.

Fishooks12

Toast wrote: »

Apparently this year they're using cash on the bars and not the token/card system of past years. This should hopefully mean getting a drink will be smoother though I suspect it could also translate to slightly longer queues at bars. It is one less thing to worry about anyway.

Someone has put the timetable into the excellent clashfinder system developed for Glastonbury. I believe the end times are still only estimates but it is pretty handy for getting an idea of what is going to clash.

What's the price of the beer going to be like dya reckon?

Living in Barca so I've become accustomed to my san miguel cheap and plentiful!

Toast

Last time I was there in 2010 it was €4 for a half liter I think. So more expensive than Barcelona in general but still cheaper than Ireland.

nomoreindie

full timetable is available now
http://sanmiguelprimaverasound.es/horarios

one thing to note is that no food or drink is allowed for the shows in the auditorium, your bag will be checked when you enter

sweetie

see y'all there!
btw which is the auditorium (in the timetable)
reckon its the weakest lineup in my three visits but should still see plenty good bands.djs

nomoreindie

sweetie wrote: »

see y'all there!
btw which is the auditorium (in the timetable)
reckon its the weakest lineup in my three visits but should still see plenty good bands.djs

the rockdelux stage is the auditorium, its a great spot
line up isnt the best but they had terrible luck with bands pulling out

sweetie

nomoreindie wrote: »

the rockdelux stage is the auditorium, its a great spot
line up isnt the best but they had terrible luck with bands pulling out

Only one I saw there was Laura Marling who was excellent. Other highlights were the cure, richard hawley, the weeknd, justice, shellac, other lives, errol alkan, wilco, real estate, deathcab, scuba and dj koko. Had a great time seeing bits and pieces of lots of bands and very few full sets. We also had two great nights in barcelona pub crawling and some lovely meals. Finished the weekend at the appollo where there was the dirtiest dancelfoor and black lips playing a good indie set.

Very sad to hear about the death on one Irish primavera goer, Rip Mark.

lordgoat

Ya had a ball over there. Highlights: Real Estate, I break Horses. Other notables: Chromatics (only saw a few songs) Wilco, The Cure, and The Dirty 3 (not my thing but all the people I was there with have them as the act of the weekend.

Roll on next year.

Oh and Jeff Mangum was ace again.

Toast

There was something off about it this year. I couldn't explain it. Maybe it was the bigger site coupled with the less dense lineup. It just didn't seem to be as great an experience as in the past. I made some awful choices early on as well which didn't help but normally it was easy to move somewhere to see something else. With the greater distances and all it meant if I made a bad choice I usually had to walk ages to get to a decent backup.

Vice and Pitchfork really burned me. I think the sound was just poor at both. Shame because they looked amazing and usually had the stuff I was most interested in pre festival. Grimes is a good example who would have been better suited at ATP at midnight than 8.30 at Pitchfork. Japandroids at Vice seemed to be a mess too with a dense unmoving crowd and unlistenable sound. Too rocky for that late at night.

In general best stage was Adidas originals for me, followed by Mini (amazing view) and Main. Saw barely anything at Ray Ban.

Justice were a stand out. Other Lives were excellent too. Reignwolf on Addidas and Spoek Mathambo too were brilliant finds. Death Cab and Beach House at Mini were perfectly serviceable versions of themselves but didn't stand out particularly. The Cure went on just too damn long. Stick the hits into a power hour! Rapture sounded amazing but looked and played by the numbers.

Having said all that I would still go back tomorrow without a thought. Some cards didn't fall too good this year with the cancellations and everything else. I reckon the numbers will be down next year but I'm hoping for a real good lineup to make up for things.

nomoreindie

I enjoyed a few bands at the pitchfork stage, lower dens and real estate were both great. The cure were really boring, but they did really bring in the punters, the Saturday night crowd was small enough. Afghan whigs and other lives were both excellent on the main stage. On Ray Ban stage archers of loaf were super. On Atp shellac, codeine and mudhoney were excellent
Michael Gira, Fr J Misty and Nick Garrie were great in the auditorium
The mini stage was just too far to walk to, nearly needed a tram to get there
bars, food and toilets all much improved and a lot more of them this year.
The bad for me were Rufus Wainright and Baxter Dury. Both were hopeless and should not have been booked.

Toast

Baxter Drury is one of the early mistakes I alluded to. I like his stuff on record but his vocals didn't work live and his increasingly desperate attempts at getting the crowd going were the nail in the coffin. He's at EP btw so that's a slot freed there for everyone who is curious. The girl loved Rufus. I left after a song and saw some I Break Horses who were pretty decent (again vocals lost in the sound though).

sweetie

how could I forget M83! The cure did go too long but the hits were great!
People I went with also said dirty three were amazing.
I really enjoyed the festival this year even though it had the weakest lineup in my three visits but still enough to satisfy me.
There's nothing like leaving a festival intime to get breakfast or go for a swim on the beach!
Edit: Also really enjoyed Spoek Mathambo, we were just passing and the sound and vibe drew us in. Another highlight was meeting Mike Mills at Yo la tengo. No pictures allowed but he was friendly.

Miguel_Sanchez

sweetie wrote: »

how could I forget M83!

I especially loved their second last song - cover version of What Is Love by Haddaway wasn't it?

The cure did go too long but the hits were great!

I saw 50 great minutes and then went for the Dirty Three.

People I went with also said dirty three were amazing.

Them and Yo La Tengo were my favorites of the festival.

lc180

I'm considering going to this next year, can anyone fill me in on the ticket situation. When do they usually go on sale and are the early bird tickets much cheaper than full price?

Cheers!

Miguel_Sanchez

lc180 wrote: »

I'm considering going to this next year, can anyone fill me in on the ticket situation. When do they usually go on sale and are the early bird tickets much cheaper than full price?

Cheers!

They put them on sale first in early October or thereabouts. Last year they put limited amounts on sale on certain days and you really had to be on the ball to get them.

I think they started at around 95 euro a ticket and went up with each subsequent release.

I got them at 130 euro I think. But they go up to around 170 or 180 though so it's well worth getting in on the early bird tickets if you can.