After the two-weekend format introduced the previous year, the festival went back to the usual three-day format in the city, but held a parallel festival in Madrid with a nearly identical lineup a week later under the tagline "I'll Be Your Mirror".
The 21st edition of the festival, performances were also live-streamed on Amazon Music's Twitch channel, which was available to watch through Amazon Prime Video as well.[2] In addition to the main festival, there was also a free "welcome day" concert at the Parc del Fòrum headlined by Pet Shop Boys, with RSVP tickets offered to both festivalgoers and Barcelona city residents.[3] There was also a closing "Brunch on the Beach" party held at the Parc del Fòrum on 4 June, featuring electronic music performances from DJs including Diplo and Purple Disco Machine.[4] Under Primavera a la Ciutat (English: "Primavera in the City"), the festival held shows throughout various different concert venues and clubs in downtown Barcelona in the days surrounding the main festival, featuring exclusive appearances from the likes of Black Midi, Molchat Doma, Cloud Nothings and The Chills.[5]
The 2023 festival date was announced on 29 November 2022, alongside its lineup announcement. Billed as "I'll Be Your Mirror", the festival was set to be held in two cities, Barcelona and Madrid during the two weekends.[6] On 7 March, New Order was announced as the final festival headliner.[7]
During the festival's free opening night on 31 May, a 57-year old Scottish man was killed by a tram outside Parc del Fòrum after the Pet Shop Boys' performance.[8]
Blur performed their UK number-one single "Country House" for the first time since 2015 and the B-side "Luminous" for the first time since 1999.[9]
On Friday 2 June, headliner Kendrick Lamar performed his verses from Pusha T's "Nosetalgia" and The Weeknd's "Sidewalks" live for the first time.[10] Later, Skrillex's set was disrupted because the stage caught fire as he performed.[10]
Rosalía, a Barcelona native, reportedly drew the largest crowd gathering of the festival when she headlined on Saturday.[11]
On Saturday 3 June, the Ron Brugal stage suffered from sound problems. Kelela's set was halted for 10 minutes and ultimately cut short as her microphone suddenly cut out. The delay resulted in Måneskin's set on the neighboring Amazon Music stage also running past its scheduled end time. As a result, Death Grips could not take the Ron Brugal stage on time, and Death Grips fans began to boo Måneskin for continuing to perform overtime and delaying the Death Grips set.[12]
Prior to performing their final song "Bull Believer" on Saturday, Wednesday lead singer Karly Hartzman criticised Jeff Bezos and Amazon while performing on the Amazon Music stage, dedicating the song to "any warehouse workers who have ever been mistreated."[13]
Ticket preferences shifted with the previous ratio of 90% full festival tickets to 10% day tickets reversing in both editions. This change in trend was linked to the rising prices of tickets, flights, and accommodation.[14] Barcelona experienced a decrease in foreign attendees from 70% to 52%, mainly among British visitors, which was attributed to the impact of Brexit and increased costs.[15][16]
This year was the inaugural edition held in Madrid exactly a week after Barcelona with nearly identical lineups. The grounds were held at the Ciudad del Rock, outside Madrid's Arganda del Rey municipality. However, the festival was cancelled entirely on Thursday as a result of weather concerns, which was announced a day prior. Blur performed a makeup show at the La Riviera club (capacity: 2,000), while Yard Act and Off! organized a show at the Wurlitzer Ballroom.[17][18][19]
The festival faced a mobility challenge, especially on June 9, when traffic jams at the entrances led to a 45-minute delay in Depeche Mode's concert. Limited parking, half of which was unusable due to prior rains, contributed to these issues. There were rumors of widespread distribution of gifted tickets to meet the target of 50,000 daily attendees, though organizers denied any unusual practices without disclosing exact numbers.[20]
Death Grips pulled out of their Saturday set at the last minute, citing an illness.[21]
The organizers noted that 38% of the attendees came from foreign countries, and in Madrid, there was a higher representation of Latin American attendees compared to Barcelona, which they attributed to Madrid being a more accessible and direct destination.[16]
On 22 July 2023, Primavera Sound announced that it would not be returning to Madrid in 2024, stating: "the expectations we had were not fulfilled and the experience of the festivalgoers due to several logistical aspects was not the desired one. Inside the Ciudad del Rock, we experienced a festival full of great musical moments, but we are not oblivious to the annoyances. And that leads us to understand that, now, the conditions are not right for Madrid to have a Primavera Sound as it deserves in 2024."[22]
Rolling Stone praised this edition of the festival for improving logistics from the year prior, such as boosting the number of on-site essentials while reducing the overall capacity, though lamenting the loss of the electronic music-centered Bits area at Sant Adrià de Besòs. It commented on the musical diversity on the lineup, which had multiple East Asian pop acts including Red Velvet, Perfume and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, and the Nigerian singer Rema.[30]Pitchfork said that the festival held appeal from "casual festival-goers and full-on obsessives to outright skeptics... you could lose it on the dancefloor to pop phenomena like Rosalía, mosh by the sea to the epiphanic black metal of Liturgy, or hear a Numero Group DJ set featuring the rarest-of-rare Italo disco 7''s, and still feel like you’ve only scratched the surface."[12]Variety said "the female performers – like St. Vincent, PinkPantheress, Caroline Polachek, Arlo Parks, Maggie Rogers, Holly Humberstone and the girl-fronted Alvvays and Wednesday – really dominated the festival’s lineup and provided some of the most spectacular, standout sets."[11]
NME gave the festival a four-star review, stating that "a festival that entreats its punters to care about the future looks to be gradually entering a new, bright and reinvigorated era of its own."[13]
