Photo Credit: Christian Bertrand
Out with some of the old, in with some of the new.
A common theme across this year’s 2025 Primavera Sound in Barcelona was the prevailing power and iconic branding of the pop girlies. Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, and Chappell Roan. The Powerpuff Girls.
While many long-time attendees grumbled at the look toward a new area, others welcomed a fresh, colorful chapter in a festival where pop music has slowly crept from the margins to the mainstage.
The Primavera Sound organizers and talent bookers, while lauded as trendsetters and champions of the underground, are also no fools. We’ve seen the festival in years past ride the wave of rap headliners filling the main stage area (Tyler, the Creator, A$AP Rocky, Meghan Three Stallion, Kendrick, and more). We’ve also seen the festival stay true to its roots in booking Pulp, Depeche Mode, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Tame Imapala, and similar acts both old and new. One thing this year saw, though, was a definite look toward the future in drawing record numbers of Gen Z attendees to see their favorite pop icons.
Pop vs. Underground: A Festival at a Crossroads
Photo Credit: Clara Orozco
As I address in my 2025 Primavera sound review and guide https://www.jonesaroundtheworld.com/future-of-primavera-sound/, chatter from fans on socials was often at odds the festival itself in regard to Primavera losings its cool or selling its soul.
Each year at Primavera Sound, there’s a noticeable undercurrent—a shift, subtle or seismic, that reveals something about the current state of music. This year, that shift came with sequins, high-gloss production, and three sold-out headliners who, a few years ago, may not have even been considered for the main stage. Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter were certainly the main attraction both in terms of music as well as marketing.
Primavera Sound, long respected for its commitment to underground acts and genre-defying curation, found itself in new territory this year. The pop-forward lineup framed a broader conversation about what it means to be “alternative” in 2025.
I really do think that the appeal of these major acts, while giving the festival a large deal of organic marketing as well as faster sellouts (don’t worry, tickets always pop up in resale waitlist closer to the festival dates), also allow for more experimental booking. With such a longstanding (24 years!) festival that still innovates while hanging on to its roots, I personally don’t mind pop-heavy headliners in order to…
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