Inside Primavera Sound Barcelona Day 1: Beabadoobee, Jamie XX, IDLES, Charli XCX & more

Primavera Sound Festival Barcelona kicked off in full force yesterday, with tens of thousands descending on the Parc Del Forum for an amazing celebration of music and culture.

A brilliant first instalment of music, the first set we checked out was Beabadoobee on the Estrella stage. Performing some of her biggest tracks, ‘the perfect pair’, ‘Real Man’ and ‘the way things go’, the Filipino-Brit singer kicked things off in the perfect style.

Elsewhere at the Levi’s Plaza – branded ‘a festival within a festival’, Snow Strippers provided a charged-up thirty-minute set of their American electronic sound to a packed out circular auditorium-type stage.

It was the English post-punk band IDLES that stood out from the rest of the acts throughout the day. Offloading their politically charged set, which was dedicated to Palestine, they got the crowd frenzied, sparking mosh pits and just a tangible energy that set them apart from the crowd.

As the night drew in, it was time to craft more basslines and introduce the electronic music. Internationally renowned Jamie XX provided an hour-and-a-half set; brain-tickling synths, extended mixes of tracks ‘Gosh’ and ‘Loud Places’ alongside a mixture of belters from his new project soundtracked what was the penultimate set for the headliner.

And inside Primavera, there was wave upon wave of Charli XCX fans… if you thought the ‘BRAT’ summer culture from last year had ended, you couldn’t be more wrong.

The Estrella Damm stage was completely packed with a sea of green, with Charli XCX and Troye Sivan providing an extended two-hour set of their ‘SWEAT’ show, electrifying the festival’s opening night with a high-energy pop spectacle that seamlessly blended club culture with live performance.