The final day of Primavera Sound Barcelona on June 6, 2026, brought multiple surprise performances, a brand-new song from one of the world’s biggest artists, and more than 50 performances to close out the weekend of music.
The day began with the annual Primavera Sound press conference. Ostensibly organized to tout the conference’s success and the positive impact on the city and community, the press conference did present that data, but the majority of reporters’ questions were focused on the communications fiasco of Thursday night. Organizers admit that there were issues and that they would reassess internal and external communications plans in future years. However, they insisted that given the rapidly changing situation on the ground and weather, they communicated in the best way possible.
Additionally, during the press conference, organizers announced that there would be a few surprise acts during the last day of the festival. One of those surprises had already been announced. Cupra Pulse, the EDM stage for the festival, would be taken over and curated by “Sonny” (AKA Skrillex) for the day with a number of guest DJs playing. The other was that a “major name” had offered to play this year after the lineup had been finalized. Conference organizers have been working with this artist to figure out a way for them to make a surprise appearance. When pressed for more information, organizers refused to budge, saying we would find out soon.
Press didn’t have to wait long for the announcement, as Olivia Rodrigo herself confirmed on Instagram within the next hour that she would be playing a set at 10:25 pm at the Occident stage. NYS Music was able to cover the artists during the last stop of the GUTS world tour last year at Osheaga, but since then she’s announced a new album and fully settled into her Rock Identity. Starting her set with “Bad Idea Right?” She brought massive energy to the stage. Following up with “Vampire,” got the audience to scream the lyrics along with the singer.
However, the best was yet to come as Rodrigo played a world premiere of her song “What’s Wrong with Me” off her new album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, which comes out on June 12. The song is a duet and tells a story about realizing that your relationship is the problem in your life. Not only is it a duet, but it features The Cure’s Robert Smith, who had just performed a headlining show at the festival the night before, for the other half. The unlikely duo have performed together before (Glastonbury 2025), and Rodrigo has mentioned The Cure on two different previous songs. Throughout the duet, the crowd was kept in rapt attention, and it was received with massive applause.
Sudan Archives also performed on the Occident Stage on Saturday. The multi-instrumentalist “All the way from Caliiiiiiii” rocked the crowd with her electric violin, wide-ranging vocals, and acrobatic dance moves throughout her set. Her songs feature a California vibe – sunny, chill, and fun to dance to. Too fast to be trip hop, and too unique – who else plays electric violin with distortion thrown on top of it – to be anything else, Sudan Archives carves a niche out all her own.
Finally, we saw Little Simz. The British rapper builds on traditions of soul, disco, and some musicals to build her flow. Using a live band while combining powerful lyrics with amazing delivery she builds beautiful songs from the ground up. More than any one we’ve seen recently she uses silence between lyrics and songs incredibly effectively – intermixing it with explosive rap technique to create an experience that leaves you breathless.
Her hit song “Venom” hits you at the same time in your body as the lyrics hit your head paralyzing you into focusing on her. While “Point and Kill” just gets you moving to the beat. At one point she even pulled out a DJ deck and started building her own beats while rapping “Mood Swings” over it, something that seems almost impossible to accomplish simultaneously. 2026 wasn’t her first time at Primavera Sound, but she seemed so grateful and happy to be back.
That’s a Wrap on Primavera Sound 2026, we hope to be back in ‘27!
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