Exclusive: Primavera Sound Planning London Launch

Primavera Sound is gearing up for its 20th anniversary in 2020 with a series of new festivals, one of which is going to be staged in London, England.

Pollstar understands that the U.K. edition of the famous Spanish festival is going to be promoted in cooperation with Broadwick Live, which recently took over a new site in North London, called Meridian Water.

The site includes indoor and outdoor spaces and would match the urban vibe, Primavera Sound’s festivals have become known for.

Broadwick currently promotes one of its festivals, Field Day, at Meridian Water. The festival was forced to move from Victoria Park, its location for ten years, when AEG signed an exclusive five-year agreement to promote events at the park in 2017.  Field Day moved to Brockwell Park in Brixton, South London, for a one-off in 2018, and then to Meridian Water in 2019.

The plan, according to an industry insider, is to merge Field Day into the U.K. edition of Primavera Sound.

Several sources confirmed that the directors of promoting company Primavera Sound S.L., run by the management team of Gabriel Ruiz, Pablo Soler, Alberto Guijarro and Alfonso Lanza, wanted a presence in the U.K. for some time, and that London had always been their preferred location.

One source pointed out that it would be interesting to see if the Primavera Sound brand was as strong as its directors believed, seeing how crowded London and the surrounding areas already were when it came to festivals. 

Pollstar understands that Primavera Sound’s team had been collaborating with AEG on the lineup of the first edition of All Points East (APE), when it premiered in London last year. 

Intensifying that collaboration with AEG in London would have been an interesting move by Primavera Sound’s organizers, seeing that they are working with Live Nation in LA, where Primavera Sound will also premier in 2020 as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations.

Despite that initial partnership, it now looks like Primavera Sound it going to give APE a run for its money in partnership with Broadwick Live.

Broadwick Live, which is invested in by Global, recently sold a large chunk of its events to Superstruct Entertainment, keeping only a small selection of events, with Field Day being the only U.K. one.

The company is a strong venue operator, running other popular and unique spaces in London, such as Printworks, or Exhibition London, set to open at the end of this year.

It also operates the 10,000-capacity Drumsheds, located at Meridian Water, the site of Primavera Sound when it launches in London next year.

Broadwick Live, Primavera Sound and Yucaipa Companies declined to comment.