Chappell Roan, Charli XCX: Primavera pros, cons, and lessons for Electric Picnic

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13 hours ago

Primavera Sound, an annual music festival held in Barcelona, took place from June 4th to June 8th this year with top-class headliners.
Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, and Sabrina Carpenter took to the stage at Parc del Fòrum last week, with many Irish acts gracing stages across the venue too, CMAT and Fontaines D.C. being the most notable of these.
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According to CatalanNews, a new record was set during the 2025 edition of Primavera Sound, as the festival welcomed around 293,000 people, most of them (65 per cent) coming from overseas.
I was one of those people coming from overseas to witness the three queens of pop in their element. And they did not disappoint.
Here is what Barcelona's Primavera Sound got right and wrong, and some advice Electric Picnic can take from the Spanish festival organisers.
Headliners
Primavera is laid out with one main headliner taking to the stage on each of the three main days of the festival.
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This year, those headliners were international popstars, also known as the Powerpuff girls, Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter.
I cannot think of one year of Electric Picnic that could compete with these headliners, even though the Stradbally festival has two headliners per day.
The line-up announced for 2025 is undoubtedly an upgrade from the last two years, where most Electric Picnic goers favoured acts like The Wolfe Tones over the headliners.
Last year, the headliners felt outdated. Noah Kahan and Gerry Cinnamon performed on Friday, Calvin Harris and Kodaline performed on Saturday, and Kylie Minogue and RAYE took to the stage to wrap up the festival on the final day.
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I had not heard from Calvin Harris or Kodaline for years, so it was a surprise to see them headlining the festival. Maybe they could have headlined unquestioned eight years ago, but not in 2024, and many people shared that same sentiment.
Outdated headliners is not something to worry about when it comes to Primavera, as the three most relevant popstars of the moment dominated the three-day festival.
Sabrina Carpenter had just released her new single Manchild, which she performed live for the first time at the festival.
Meanwhile, Charli XCX and Chappell Roan were both still riding high after an extremely successful 2024 for both of them.
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Charli's Brat summer and Chappell's ever-growing Pink Pony FanClub ensured huge crowds for the stars.
While Electric Picnic has received a lot of criticism over the last few years for its headliners, some credit must be given for this year's lineup.
This year's headliners include:
Friday: Hozier and Chappell Roan;
Saturday: Sam Fender and Fatboy Slim;
Sunday: Kings of Leon and Becky Hill.
In terms of relevance, Friday is the strongest day for this year's lineup, but the timeless tunes from Fatboy Slim and Kings of Leon will prove a treat for festival goers of all ages.
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The main note to Electric Picnic is to take a leaf out of Primavera's book when it comes to headliners. Unlike the Stradbally-based festival, Primavera has seldom let down fans when it has released its headliners.
Other acts
Surprisingly, Primavera's support for Irish acts was quite impressive, and they garnered huge crowds.
The stage for CMAT was certainly not big enough for the crowd that she attracted. There were people watching from the top of the steps as there was no room in the crowd.
Fontaines D.C. also attracted quite the crowd, and received cheers from the crowd for their display of solidarity with Palestine.
There were many Irish people in Barcelona last week for the festival and a lot of these people went to support the Irish acts, myself included.
To be fair to Electric Picnic, the festival has long championed Irish musicians. CMAT, Fontaines D.C., Kneecap, Amble, Kingfishr, and many more have already performed at the festival or will be performing this year.
However, the Laois festival's problem lies with its headliners and the acts that are meant to be one step down from the headliners.
Primavera's entire lineup was star-studded, while Electric Picnic's has a couple of names that each person will be happy with, and then a load of niche acts that many will only know one song from.
Other acts who performed at Primavera, besides the headliners, included: Troye Sivan, FKA Twigs, Magdalena Bay, Beabadoobee, Beach House, Denzel Curry, Jamie XX, and Wet Leg.
Electric Picnic does not rival this lineup for me, even with their improved headliners for this year.
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Food, drink, other facilities
This is the category where Primavera lost marks.
If you think food and drink is expensive at concerts/festivals in Ireland, you should avoid hoping for cheaper at the Barcelona festival.
Beer and wine was the way to go, as any spirit and mixed drink had you looking in your purse for €12/€14.
As well as this, there were not enough bars for the amount of people there. This particularly became an issue when people would leave after headliners looking for drinks and water, only to wait in queues for up to half an hour.
Electric Picnic is certainly no better when it comes to pricing, which is why many of those camping will bring their own food and drink to limit their spending when they pass the festival gates.
Maybe this is just the way it's heading, and I should expect to need to take out a loan when I want to attend a music festical!
When it comes to other facilities like toilets and taps, I'm afraid it was a similar story to the pubs and food places in Barcelona. There were not enough facilities for the crowd that was there.
This is a complaint that has appeared throughout the years for Primavera, so I would imagine that this is not just my experience of the facilities there.
Electric Picnic, on the other hand, has an ample supply of bars, food spots, and toilets for the amount of people that attend.
In the campsites specifically, you are never too far away from toilets, phone charging stations, or first aid huts.
Concluding thoughts
It is a nice experience to travel abroad for a music festival, especially when the lineup is as good as Primavera's was.
The weather was phenomenal and, unlike Electric Picnic, I did not have to worry about the rain. Although we cannot place the blame for that on the festival's organisers!
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We can, however, criticise the lineup. And if Electric Picnic's headliners were to go up against Primavera's, I have no doubt in my mind which set would come out on top. Unfortunately, it would not be a win for Co Laois.
If I had to say which festival is better value for money taking the lineup, setting, facilities, and atmosphere into account, I would have to go with Primavera.
The lineup wins the competition for the Barcelona festival in my opinion. However, Electric Picnic takes the crown in the facilities and atmosphere categories.
Even though it loses out to Primavera in my view, Electric Picnic still has a special place in my heart, and those Stradbally fields will see me again this year.