The City of Rock of Primavera Sound Madrid: a controversial venue in a dry land 40 kilometers from the center


The landing of Primavera Sound in Madrid in 2023 poses significant challenges for its organizers, especially concerning the venue where the festival will be held. The chosen place is rock citya complex 41 kilometers from Puerta del Sol and about 8 km from the nearest town, Arganda of the King (55,000 inhabitants).

The land is located on the edge of the A-3 motorway and in the middle of a wasteland with no public transport nearby: the metro goes to the center of Arganda, there are no bus lines that go to the event and the movement of many attendees will depend on the shuttles that are made available to you. Difficulties to which are added the high temperatures in Madrid in mid-June. That is why there are many who wonder if a festival can be held there with the same guarantee of success, a festival that in Barcelona is fully integrated into the city, located on the edge of the sea and that in its last edition welcomed 220,000 attendees, with peaks of 80,000 per day.

sources of the Madrid’s communitythe main counterpart in the agreement with the Barcelona festival, have explained that these are logistical details that will have to be finalized with the organization, and they speak not only of the City of Rock, but of other nearby plots that could be added to expand the venue .

For his part, from the City of Madrid They have declared that they are waiting to arrange a face-to-face meeting with those responsible for the festival to study collaboration formulas and that the music can be extended to different venues and cultural spaces in the city center, as has also happened in Barcelona in the previous days. and after the Forum concerts.

From More Madrid, the main opposition force in the Community and the City Council, hailed the arrival of Primavera Sound in the capital as good news, although making it clear that “we want it to come as it has in Barcelona: with a commitment to environmental sustainability, with reduction of negative impacts, with a social return with the territory and with fair social and labor relations”. They add that they have very little confidence in Ayuso worrying about ensuring that all of this occurs.

a controversial space

The City of Rock has been involved in controversy since its birth in 2006, when it was conceived as the location of the Madrid franchise of the Rock in Rio festivala mammoth musical event, with a crazy programming and typical of the years of the real estate bubble that celebrated three biannual editions there.

Already in its day, the requalification of the land acquired by the Community for use by the Municipality of Arganda and the construction of the infrastructure by it was unclear, and it was also seen clouded by the involvement of two of its main political leaders in the Gürtel and Púnica corruption schemes. Added to that was the questionable balance of Rock in Rio, a festival of incoherent programming in which the PP council at the time invested an enormous sum of money that, for the opposition at the time, was not compensated with an obvious return on the local economy.

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The current socialist mayor, Peter William Hita, very critical in his day with that management, is now optimistic. “It stands to reason that A world-class festival will have a significant economic impact for Arganda del Rey&rdquor ;, explains the alderman. “Not only during those three days in June 2023, but also during the preparation times, for Arganda it will be a very important economic power. Just like it has in Barcelona & rdquor ;. Asked about the comparison with Rock in Rio, Hita argues that then “the promoter left the Arganda City Council stranded & rdquor ;, because by not finding the necessary sponsors, the festival abandoned its intention to celebrate a fourth edition without compensating the consistory for it. “I think they are different situations & rdquor ;, he says now he.

The venue has been unused for two years of the pandemic, but this summer it will once again host the A Summer Story electronic music festival, which in its 2019 edition said it had brought together a total of 100,000 attendees. The mayor explains that the agreement reached with Primavera Sound, in which Arganda rents the space to the festival for an amount that has not been provided, without incurring any expense, it refers only to the 2023 edition. “Although there is a vocation on both sides that it can continue in later years”.


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