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Primavera Sound Porto 2024

PRIMAVERA SOUND PORTO 2024
_ © Hugo Lima | www.hugolima.com | www.instagram.com/hugolimaphoto

And it’s gone. Our tenth trip to the Parque da Cidade is over, and despite our usual (and some new) gripes, our eyes are already on next year’s edition: 12, 13, and 14 June 2025. Let’s start with the pros: the three ‘green’ stages of Primavera Sound Porto (the original Vodafone and Super Bock side-by-side stages, plus the new Plenitude stage by the meadow) are unrivalled. You’ll struggle to find any other festival this size where it’s so easy to see most shows from a good spot without having to show up half an hour in advance, no matter how tall you aren’t.

Sadly, the fourth one, the new main stage, is nothing of the sort. A massive stage is necessary for the festival to grow, be able to pull big headliners like SZA and Lana del Rey, accommodate 40k+ visitors, and keep the lights on by selling thousands of daily tickets to people who may or may not care about anything else on the lineup that day. It also helps keeping the festival somewhat affordable – although increasingly expensive – for its core (is it really still the core?) audience who comes to Porto for three days of music. But, after two years, the organisation should now decide, before it’s too late to reverse course: is this kind of growth desirable at all?

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Primavera Sound Porto 2024: a preview

PRIMAVERA SOUND PORTO 2023 _ DAY 4 / 10JUN _ © Hugo Lima | hugolima.com | www.fb.me/hugolimaphotography | instagram.com/hugolimaphoto

On Saturday, June 8th 2024 I was supposed to see my 15th Shellac show. Three weeks after Steve Albini’s sudden passing, it’s still hard to imagine we’re not seeing their name on Primavera’s lineup ever again. Shellac is an impossible band to replace, and the organisation knows it well: it was either silence or a celebration, and we got a Shellac Listening Party instead, where their first album in ten years, To All Trains, will be played in its entirety.

In 2024 we also mourn the loss of the Bits stage, which is unavailable for this year’s edition. We lose the clubbing part and a nice shelter from the rain, but there are good news, too. Music starts earlier, with the first shows starting around 16:30, and it stops earlier, too: expect to be home before 3 am. What a dream.

Expect the best food court of any music festival, maybe a little bit of rain, stunning headliner sets by Pulp, Mitski and Lana del Rey, and the greenest the park has been in recent years, as per the festival’s director. Read on to know about our top ten non-headliner sets for this year, and listen to our special Spotify playlist.

Primavera Sound Porto 2024 runs from June 7 to 9 and full festival tickets (plus day tickets for Thursday and Saturday) are still available on the festival’s website. As usual, you can download our printable timetables here (Excel/3-day view) and the mobile PDF version here.

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#382: Max Bien Kahn, “When I Cross It Off”

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#195: Purple Mountains, “Purple Mountains”

Eleven years after the Silver Jews’ swan song “Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea”, David Berman finally resurfaces as Purple Mountains. And the new record is everything we ever wanted and more, with members of Woods as their backing band and producers adding extra catchiness to Berman’s superior songwriting. It jumps straight to the top of our list of favorite albums of the year.

Plus: new tracks by Divino Niño, B Boys, Tijuana Panthers, Drab Majesty, Kyle Craft, Lower Dens, Gruff Rhys, Jenny Hval, Carnivorous Plant Society, Sandro Perri, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Bad Heaven Limited, Olympia, Jade Jackson, Michaela Anne, Eilen Jewell, Kelsey Waldon, Emma Russack, Erin Durant, Asia, and Joanna Sternberg.