Primavera Sound has always concentrated on o!ering the chance to see new promising independent bands and also renowned artists from any style or genre, fundamentally looking for quality and essentially backing pop and rock as well as underground electronic and dance music.

Over the last years, the festival has had the most diverse range of artists. Some of those who have been on stage are, Pixies, Aphex Twin, Neil Young, Sonic Youth, Portishead, Pet Shop Boys, Pavement, Echo & The Bunnymen, Lou Reed, My Bloody Valentine, El-P, Pulp, Patti Smith, James Blake, Arcade Fire, Cat Power, Public Enemy, Grinderman, Franz Ferdinand, Television, Devo, Enrique Morente, The White Stripes, LCD Soundsystem, Tindersticks, PJ Harvey, Shellac, Dinosaur Jr., New Order, Fuck Buttons, Swans, Melvins, The National, Psychic TV, Spiritualized, The Cure, Bon Iver, La Buena Vida, Death Cab For Cutie, Iggy & The Stooges, De La Soul, Marianne Faithfull and Mazzy Star, amongst many others.

Primavera Sound consolidates itself as the urban festival par excellence with unique characteristics. The event stands out from other large music events and is faithful to its original artistic idea, keeping the same standards and maintaining the same quality of organization of past years, without resorting to more commercial bands.

Its characteristics and the wide range of bands performing have been the main reasons that have made Primavera Sound the meeting point of artists and festivalgoers from various generations. Year after year, Primavera Sound has attracted a bigger and bigger crowd, as well as getting more and more media attention. If the first edition in 2001 closed with an attendance of 8,000 people, the 2002 edition reached 18,000 people and in 2003 it attracted more than 24,000 people. The attendance of 40,000 people in 2004 meant that the festival had to leave the Poble Espanyol. The first edition on the Parc del Fòrum site closed its doors with an attendance of 44,000 people and a few years later in 2009 the number of people had reached 76,000. Now an unmisseable musical event, it had over 123,000 visits in 2011 and had almost 150,000 visits in 2012.