PJ Harvey & Interpol complete the line up for the Primavera Sound festival

Barcelona (ACN) .- Primavera Sound, the rock-pop festival, that takes place annually in Barcelona in late May is getting bigger. Although the organisers were satisfied with the size of the Forum Park last year, this year, they will extend their space by 20,000 square meters and build a brand new bigger and better stage. This week, the festival organisers revealed their final line up with 67 performers on the list. Among the new names are big names like PJ Harvey and Interpol. The festival will take place from the 26^th of May to the 28^th in the Forum and will be officially opened and closed in the Poble Espanyol (in Montjuïch) on the 25^th and the 29^th. Las year, over 100,000 festival goers attended the event, something that shows that the Primavera Sound festival is going from strength to strength. At least, this is what the organisers feel based on the assessment they carried out on the last day of last years' event. That’s why they have decided to use part of their 6 million budget to further expand the festival grounds. In order to “improve the comfort of festival goers”, the organisers have announced they will add an extra 20,000 square feet to the grounds. The arrangement will be similar to last year but will have a brand new bigger and better stage especially for the most famous groups. The new stage will be the second biggest stage of the rock festival with a capacity of hosting an audience of up to 20,000 people. In total, there will be eight stages. Like always, they will be christened with a name of one of the sponsoring companies like Ray Ban, Pitchfork, Vice, Adidas Originals, San Miguel, ATP, and Rockdelux. The new stage has no name yet.

The new bigger size of the festival grounds means that organisers will have to sell more tickets. But that is not a cause for concern. Sales have been great so far this year, event better than last year. According to the organisers, 20% more tickets have been sold for this years event compared to the amount that were sold this time last year. 20,000 tickets have already been sold this year and they expect 30,000 people to attend each night.

New additions

This Wednesday, organisers of the Primavera Sound festival announced the 67 groups that would make up this years line up. In total this year, there will be more than 250 concerts. 193 of the concerts will be held at the Forum and the rest under the program 'Spring in the City'. They will be included in the opening and closing concerts at the Poble Espanyol (in Montjuïch), 'Spring in the parks' (which is moving to Central Park in Poble Nou),' Spring in the underground 'and' Spring clubs.

Pj Harvey is the last big name that has been announced for the festival. The North American will be joined by the British bands Interpol and PIL. Although they will be the headliners, other 'big' groups like Pulp, Animal Collective, Belle & Sebastian, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Flaming Lips and Mogway will also perform.

The line up is as always very large. As for state and national participation, between 35 and 40 Spanish groups will be present, and about 20 Catalans. The director of the festival, Alberto Guijarro said, "there is no other festival in Spain with so many Catalans groups on the schedule'. Catalan participation includes El Guincho, Iaias, La Célula durmiente, Les Aus, Toundra, Thelemáticos, Suicide of western culture and Me & the Bees. Other groups playing at the festival are Big Boy (ex Outcast) Ainara Legardon, Explosions in the Sky, Girl Talk, Mathew Deer, The Monochrome Set, Nosoträsh, Sufjan Stevens, The soft moon, James Blake, Bizarre Love Triangle and The National.

Other new developments this year are, for example, the installation of a 'cinema' Forum where festivalgoers can watch films. The space 'Minimusica' will have its very own programming in Central Park in Poble nou, where the Spring Parks event will take place.

No Government aid

The organisers Albert Guijarro and Gabi Ruiz has questioned this year once more why the Government does not want to collaborate with the Primavera Sound festival, just like the City Council. Albert Guijarro said that although they had requested a meeting with the institutions, it never happened. In his words, "It is a bit absurd that we have been ignored for four years." Last year, the head of Culture at the Barcelona city Council, Jordi Martí, mentioned the importance of the festival in his speech and asked for the support of the Government.