Barcelona’s Primavera Sound Festival faced stormy weather on its opening day Thursday – literally and figuratively – as festival-goers and performers experienced cancellations due to persistent rain and 80km winds.
Headliners Doja Cat and Massive Attack, as well as sets from Bad Gyal, Alex G and Mac DeMarco were cancelled, without being rescheduled.
Artists reported a number of show cancellations happened at the very last minute – as Doja described in on an Instagram Live, she was “fully dressed and ready to go on stage” when she heard the news.
Much of the criticism centred around the fact that despite the bad weather being forecast four days before the festival, communications from the organisers were perceived as being blindsighted and under-prepared.
Fans were only informed of changes via Primavera’s Instagram account, which many could not access during the event due to poor reception.
Festivalgoers also criticised the fact that numerous screens across the festival grounds, as well as its dedicated app, seemed under-utilised, and also suggested that shelter was scarce on-site, with additional safety concerns around crowd control and access to water.
Massive Attack made a statement expressing their “devastation” over organisational pitfalls: “No one can control severe weather, we understand that, and the safety of the audience, show staff, the crews and the artists must be paramount,” said the band.
“The deep frustration for us as artists is that in the midst of the chaos, we are unable to communicate directly with fans who we know are as upset as we are.”
Other acts played through the rain, including French electropop artist Oklou – though not without challenges, as she described in an Instagram story. “Yesterday was the biggest crowd I have ever played to with the shittiest weather,” wrote Oklou.
“I hope that the festival can offer better working conditions in the future, ’cause half of the team came back to the bus unfed and soaking wet ’cause of the very chaotic shuffle system after hours of hard work.”
For its part, the Parc del Fòrum-based festival offered refunds for fans with Thursday day-tickets in a social-media post setting out its side of the story.
“We understand and share the frustration and disappointment of the audience regarding this situation, which is not what we had hoped for,” it explained.
“The festival organisers followed the established safety protocols at all times and prioritised the safety of the audience, artists and staff above all else. We thank the audience for their understanding and confirm that, despite the difficulty of the situation, there were no serious incidents.”
The rest of the weekend passed off successfully, but the comments on Primavera Sound’s post continued the criticism, focusing on the lack of even-partial refunds for people with weekend tickets, as well as the level of communication on Thursday night when sets were initially delayed and rescheduled, before being cancelled altogether.
“Money is the only reason you kept us there until 4 a.m., drenched in the rain, clinging to the false hope that the festival would resume,” said one comment, eliciting nearly 130 likes. “After charging €400 per ticket, your real concern seemed to be keeping us trapped inside the venue for as long as possible, hoping to squeeze a few more euros out of food and drink sales.”
[Editor’s note: we have included this comment as a reflection of how some festivalgoers felt amid the confusion around the rescheduled and cancelled sets. Primavera Sound’s post offers a fuller explanation of what happened from its side – hopes that the weather would ease rather than any commercial motivations.]
This is not Primavera’s first time under fire for unsafe conditions – in 2022 fans also reported subpar security measures, overcrowding and water shortages.
On the topic of volatile weather, it will be of mounting importance for festivals to prepare in advance for extreme conditions of all sorts, as the climate crisis becomes increasingly dire.
A report by Green Music Australia from this May found that 85% of Aussie festival attendees have experienced ‘extreme weather’ at a music event in the past year, and over 50 festivals have been cancelled since 2025 for the same reason.
