“The whole of Portugal, is waiting expectantly for Charli XCX’s show, who is in absolutely incredible shape and who last week, in Barcelona [Spain], gave a fantastic show; she is a Grammy-winning artist, she is an artist who is making her Portuguese debut at Primavera Sound Porto and there is a lot of anticipation surrounding her”, José Barreiro, director of Primavera Sound Porto 2025, told Lusa.

In an interview with Lusa, José Barreiro said that around 35 thousand people are expected each day of Primavera, with a total of 140 thousand people expected between 12 and 15 June.

“Tickets are still on sale, there is no forecast that they will sell out (…), but for us, the numbers are great. We will have an average of 35 thousand people [per day]. We continue to be very sought after by foreigners. We sell tickets to more than 100 countries”.

The majority of festival-goers are Portuguese, but there are also many foreigners, José Barreiro reinforced.

“Combining general passes with daily tickets, I would say 70% Portuguese and 30% foreigners. Roughly speaking, there will be between 15 and 20 thousand foreigners”.

The top five nationalities are the United Kingdom, followed by Spain, Italy, Germany and, in fifth place, the USA.

No rain is expected this spring, said José Barreiro, estimating that this edition will be “completely dry”, because the “little depression” that appeared “is already passing” and “it is sunny in the city of Porto”.

“I don’t think it will rain anymore until the end of the festival. It may rain a little tonight, but from Thursday onwards there is no forecast of rain”.


In case it does rain, Barreiro explained that “areas where people can take shelter” have been created. Attention has also been paid to “access points and rainwater systems”, so that water does not accumulate and so that “the inconvenience of a festival in the rain” can be minimised.

José Barreiro admits that it will always be difficult to accommodate 35,000 people, unless a pavilion is built, in which case it would no longer be an open-air festival.

“The rain is part of it. It bothers us a lot, because we put a lot of effort into putting on the most beautiful festival in Portugal all year long, and then suddenly it rains and greatly diminishes people’s experience. But we do what we can, but asking for the impossible is difficult, because covering an area of ​​11 hectares is complicated,” he said.

One of the new features this year is the debut of a new stage, which will be the main stage.

“There was a structural reinforcement of stages, of structures that can hold a large number of people. The layout of the festival remains exactly the same; we are simply going to debut a new stage as the main stage, the Porto Stage.”

The structure of the old main stage has been moved to the Vodafone Stage, stage 2.

Another new feature of this edition is that Sunday afternoon will be entirely dedicated to “electronic music.” The electronic music will be playing on the Revolut Stage, which is the festival's third stage, until 11:00 pm.

When asked about the financial support of 650 thousand euros from Porto City Council coming to an end in the 2023-2025 three-year period, José Barreiros believes that whoever the next mayor of the municipality is, the municipality will continue to support Primavera Sound and, therefore, the dates for the event in 2026 will be announced on the last day of the festival.

“[The support] actually ends this year. We are studying the possibility of a one-year extension, but simply from all the conversations we have had with the candidates for Porto City Council, they are all fans of the festival, they know the impact it has on the city and on the last day of the festival the dates for next year will be announced, because we know that Primavera is already part of the city's culture”.

This Thursday, in addition to the performance by British artist Charlie XCX, bands such as Fontaines D.C., Caribou, Anohni and the Johnsons, The Dare, The Jesus Lizard, Surma, Tuilpa Ruiz and Angélica Garcia, among others, will perform.

The festival promises a varied lineup, ranging from pop, rock, metal and electronic, as described by José Barreiro.

Over the remaining three days of the festival, Primavera Beach House will also feature Deftones, Michael Kiwanuka, Garota Não, Jamie XX, Turnstile, Wet Leg, Haim, Parcels, TV On The Radio, Kim Deal (Sonic Youth), Squid, Capitão Fausto, among many others.