Primaveras Both Grow And Grow

That’s 31.6 percent up on the 1,997 that showed up last year. At a time when showcase conferences are appearing in almost every European country and it’ll likely become harder to make some of them sustainable, Primaverapro looks to be one that’ll have no problem surviving.

Those attendance figures mean it’s now larger than Germany’s Reeperbahn and London’s ILMC.

It’s understandable that many in the European music industry might like the idea of spending four or five days in Spain at this time of year, and more than half of the delegates come from outside the country, but the strength of Primaverapro’s panel program is clearly another main attraction.

This year had 115 conference events and 85 speakers, covering such subjects as the future of live music and festivals, the role of independent labels in the music sector and messaging apps and the music industry.

Primaverapro’s success can also be gauged by the number of music industry organisations that plan their meetings around the Barcelona event, which this year included IMPALA, WIN, Live DMA, Yourope, UFI, APM, ACCES, AEDEM, ASACC and ARC. It also featured showcase gigs promoting new talent from all over the world.

Another big plus for Primaverapro is that it runs more or less in parallel with Barcelona’s Primavera Sound festival, which opened the Spanish festival season May 29-31 with a lineup that included Arcade Fire, Pixies, Queens of the Stone Age, Television performing Marquee Moon, Haim, and Nine Inch Nails.

The Primavera organisers have now moved from Bracelona’s Parc Del Forum to Porto, Portugal, where Optimus Primavera – the Portuguese version – is being staged June 5-7.

The lineup in Porto’s Parque Da Cidade includes Pixies, Haim, and Television.

Last year the Spanish event smashed its attendance record for the third time in four years, attracting a four-day crowd of 170,000 for a bill that had Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, along with The Jesus and Mary Chain, James Blake and Animal Collective.

This year it smashed it again by doing 190,000, which, at an average 47,500 per day, makes it a real contender for Spain’s biggest festival, along with BBK Live and Benicassim. The Portuguese fest usually has around 25,000 per day.