With all great festivals comes great insight and Primavera Festival 2022 was exactly that. We were spoilt with an endless stream of talented artists and learnt a few things about them that we weren’t expecting.

With the fallout of Covid, it felt for a long time that festivals were a thing of the past. For many people, Primavera Festival 2022 felt like a return to normality and even more so, an essential return of a music community that felt withered over the past two years. With ten days, the festival stood to be one of the most ambitious music festivals of all time. There were a few snags along the way with artists pulling out at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances. There were also noticeable triumphs, adding many brilliant last minute replacements including Joey Bada$$ to the lineup. By the time the festival started, it was evident that the music community that once seemed so distant was finally back in full swing. The communal element seemed to be everywhere. You’d see Damon Albarn jamming out in the crowd to Ride, you’d hear rumours of black midi and Earl Sweatshirt in the crowd for Jockstrap, You would walk past Alex Cameron walking over a bridge and think “why is he wearing the same outfit from his performance the day before?”. Mostly it felt like the performers who were there, were sweetly there for each other just as much as the fans. It’s their shared - multi-genre love of music that truly resonated at this festival and the fans seemed to follow suit. This felt like a festival were a ticket holder was just as likely to see 100 gecs as they were Big Thief or Megan Thee Stallion. It felt like the boundaries of taste were knocked down and the music community had returned stronger than ever.

Most importantly we learned some interesting news from artists we hadn’t seen in a long time. Below is just a few things we learnt from this years insightful Primavera Festival.

Weyes Blood Shares Details of New Album Out This Fall

It’s been three long years since Weyes Blood’s epic last album Titanic Rising and with the artist’s Primavera Festival 2022 performance we were spoiled with the knowledge that the artist will in-fact be releasing something later this year. Though Weyes Blood didn’t perform any of these hotly anticipated new songs live, she did play a moving cover of the Hollies’ ‘The Air That I Breathe’ whilst the rest of her set delivered tear-inducing ballads that permeated the audience.

BCNR Friends Forever

For many Black Country, New Road fans, this year has been a curious tale of where the band would go following the departure of lead vocalist Isaac Wood. Primavera Festival 2022 saw the band perform an entirely new set of music, having already declared they wouldn’t be performing any of their recently released critically acclaimed album Ants From Up There. The new set saw high’s and low’s in the emotional resonance of their music. Fans gleefully rejoiced during opener ‘Up Song’ as the band and also somehow the crowd exclaimed “BCNR Friends Forever!”, spreading a sense that Wood’s departure hasn’t soured anything between the artists and their old friend.

Amy Taylor Had Never Used A Thrust Ramp Before

Amy Taylor of vitriolic punk band Amyl and the Sniffers took advantage of Dua Lipa’s thrust ramp kicking off weekend two with vivacious energy. Their set also saw the band at the heights of their ability as performers. You can tell that guitarist Declan Martens and the rest of the band are at their most confident, breezing through songs that the band would have had a harder time playing live just a year or two ago. Amyl and the Sniffers may have been the most badass performance at Primavera this year, and that’s saying something considering Joey Bada$$ performed.

Joey Bada$$ is a fan of Panic at the Disco?

That’s right… Joey Bada$$ or at least Joey Bada$$’s hype man is a fan of Panic at the Disco! Or perhaps just trolling the audience whilst they wait for Joey Bada$$ to come on stage and deliver his first European show in four years. Surprisingly the crowd loved singing along to ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ before Joey finally took the stage and played a raucous set of hits including: Rockabye Baby, Temptation, Paper Trail$, Devastated and new track Head High.

Phoenix’s Thomas Mars Can Crowd Surf Pretty God Damn Far

In what perplexed a lot of audience members Phoenix’s Thomas Mars managed to traverse the crowd all the way from the main stage to the vip section with the crowd in total awe the whole time. Phoenix’s set was one of the most euphoric in it’s delivery, leaving even the mildest fan blown away by the sheer fun being had.

Five Things We Learnt From Primavera Festival 2022