Sitting in an office high in a skyscraper overlooking Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona a couple of days before the kick-off, we enter Primavera Sound‘s headquarters, where we meet a pivotal figure shaping the festival’s narrative. Marta Pallarès, the Head of Press and PR, orchestrates the festival’s media presence, bridging the gap between the festival and its global audience.
In this exclusive interview, we delve into her journey, uncovering the secrets behind managing media relations, navigating the evolving landscape of music journalism, and the ever-changing role of PR in the digital age.
First things first, good morning Marta. How are you?
Good morning. Well, you can see that we are more than ready to open the doors. We start next Monday with the first activities of Primavera en la Ciutat, which as you know are concerts that take place throughout the city of Barcelona, Monday and Tuesday. And on Wednesday we are ready for the opening day, free of charge, and almost everything is ready for a new edition to begin on Thursday.
To begin with, we want to know a little about your origins, could you briefly share your career and how you became the press officer of Primavera Sound?
As far as I remember, I always wanted to dedicate myself to journalism, to communication. When I was very young, I would go around the house explaining what my father or my mother was doing, and I would broadcast with a wooden spoon as if it were a microphone. So as far back as I can remember I’ve always wanted to do that. But it was also the day that, I think because of family heritage, I started to get into the world of music, because at home I listened to a lot of music, and during my journalism career I began to specialize in cultural journalism.
I worked in a newspaper covering performing arts, and that obviously included music, but it wasn’t until I moved to Mexico that I started working on the other side of the industry. There I worked as head of press for a record label, Casete, for Camilo Lara, for the Mexican Institute of Sound, and for the recently deceased Lynn Fainchtein, the best and most important music supervisor in Latin America, with Oscars, who has worked with films, with Iñárritu. So there, as head of marketing, I found it very interesting to position myself on the other side of the industry, that is, not to be the journalist who is receiving these press releases, but in another more active way, perhaps, to broadcast this information.
I was already writing for Rockdelux, which is a collaborator of Primavera Sound, and on my return from Mexico, there was a vacancy here to manage the whole live stream project which was done with Red Bull TV. In Mexico, I was also writing for Red Bull Panamérika, which was a Red Bull blog and radio program that covered all the musical news in Latin America. So, when I arrived here, I had covered the festival on many occasions for Rockdelux, I had worked with Red Bull, and I had international experience, –the project was international, obviously–. So it was a pretty ideal fit. I worked two editions, 2016 and 2017, as project manager of the project, as a link between Red Bull and Primavera Sound. And then in 2017 the company’s press team was reformulated and I started working as head of international press. It wasn’t until last year that I took another step further to take the whole press project.
The PR figure came very naturally to me too. In 2019 Primavera became the first festival to get a parity lineup, -which we still have-. And somehow the most logical thing was that it was a woman who explained it. That is, even without being the Head of the Press, as I was already in charge of the international part, I was the one who began to give interviews to the BBC, The Guardian, and Forbes, so I started to work more and more in the PR part, because that’s why we started to be invited to many congresses and conferences, to explain how we had achieved it. After all, since 2019 and until now no one else has achieved it either. It is easier to program, obviously, an even lineup when there are 20 groups, but when there are 220, as we have, it is not such an easy task.
And from there I started all my work as a spokesperson, I started to work more in international festival networks, and from there I was also asked to be part of the Board of YOUROPE, which is the European Festivals Association, so it developed in a very natural way.
What is the relevance of a role like yours within a festival as prominent as Primavera Sound?
Always to break the ice, I explain that I don’t do anything, that I just go to places to explain what other people do. Then that always provokes, as it has happened to you, a smile, and I think it’s a good way to open the interview.
Obviously, we do a lot, but let’s say that the heavy lifting is done by other departments and other colleagues. So it’s always listening to what is being done, asking what you don’t know, because you can come to me and ask me a technical question, and I won’t have any idea because it’s not my job and I don’t have to know how to do it. But if you know that you are going to give an interview for a magazine that specializes in technique, well, before that, I am only going to ask the questions, I am going to ask the data, and I am going to sit down with my colleagues so that they can explain to me what it consists of. So it is a dual skill, of listening to a lot and speaking well, rather than little.
Let’s talk about the impact of the press on events, can you give us your point of view or explain the importance of having a strong press department at a music festival? And how does this impact the visibility and success of an event?
I think it’s a dual role, where you have to speak for the public, but you also have to speak for the industry. I mean, in the end, the image of a festival is sustained through many different legs. Nothing works if you have a great communication strategy, but then things don’t work at the festival. Or if you have a very big root within the industry, but then your social networks are very outdated, so you always have to take into account how you communicate inside and outside the festival, and how you communicate for various sectors. And they are all equally important. Surely, in the end, we are not going to sell more or fewer tickets by the fact of participating in many industry conferences, but that does give you a position of being an important actor, an actor that manages the discourse, rather than being a passive agent of what is happening around you. And that ends up bifurcating into a much more solid role for the audience as well.
In other words, I believe that you always have to think about the press strategy in very different ways depending on who you are addressing. I’m not discovering anything new here, but it’s something that is sometimes forgotten, that you just think that having sizzling social networks will solve everything. And in the end, if you are a serious player in the industry as we are, which is one of the top 3 festivals in the world, you can’t just address the industry or your audience, or neglect the press and just have social networks or the other way around. It has to be a very global strategy with a very solid discourse from the beginning so that the discourse, the content, and the meaning are communicated, it is always one, but not in the same way. But the base idea that centralizes each year your edition, has to be one, and then from there communicate it in the way that is appropriate for each of your channels.
We would also like to talk about the evolution of the role of the press. How do you think the figure of the press has evolved in music events and festivals over the years? And what significant changes have you observed in terms of coverage and relationship with the media?
One of the panels this year, which came precisely from an idea I had and which Primavera Pro also had in mind, is precisely that, the role of the music press. We have seen what has happened with Pitchfork. Pitchfork has been acquired by GQ and the future is still uncertain. And if Pitchfork, which is the most important outlet in the music press in the world, the most trusted voice in music –as they say– they too don’t know whether to disappear or be absorbed or re-channeled through GQ, which is a men’s style and lifestyle magazine, then what is going to happen to the rest of the media? So, it is a very open question.
We do see that year after year we continue to have around 800 accredited journalists from all over the world, 800 media that come to cover the festival. That is a lot of people and obviously, it is only a part of those who ask us for accreditation. We have an acceptance ratio of maybe 1 to 5. We can receive about 5000 applications, so there is still interest in writing or talking or reporting about music, but the interest it has for the public, that’s what is a big question mark right now.
People don’t read, but do we have to understand that journalism is reading? Well, probably not, or not only. But I grew up reading music magazines and for me, they still have value. But is that going to have value for the next generation? Because in the end, I am a 44-year-old woman. So, is it still journalism if you do it through a YouTube channel? Well, we also want to unveil that and we are very interested in it.
We have around 800 accredited journalists from all over the world covering the festival, with an acceptance ratio of 1 to 5. While we receive about 5000 applications, the public’s interest in music journalism is a big question mark. People don’t read, but is journalism just about reading? Probably not, or not only.
Marta Pallarès for Xceed (2024)
We are going to have Anthony Fantano, The Needle Drop, here at the festival this year. So, Anthony is a person with a musical knowledge that probably resembles the top 0.5% of people who talk about music. But he doesn’t write. He speaks directly to his audience. And that also happens with artists. Artists are sometimes now no longer interested in giving interviews because their promo is done directly through their TikTok. For better and for worse. Because many say, “My record label came to me and told me that I have to do a TikTok. I feel ridiculous doing a TikTok. But if they tell me I have to do it, then I have to do it”. Just like before I didn’t like giving interviews and I gave them. So, the fact that there are channels that are much more direct to your audience or your potential reader than mediatizing it through a media outlet is something that is happening right here in front of our eyes as we speak. And we’re not going to have an answer for this until this has already happened.
I think there should be able to be a space for everything. I think it’s fantastic that there are people who are rediscovering now, or no, not even rediscovering, who are discovering shoegaze through TikTok, who are people who had never heard Slowdive or The Jesus and Mary Chain in their life, because they’re literally 15 years old, but they’re doing it now through TikTok because there are creators who are doing shoegaze in their bedrooms. I think it’s great that that exists, but I’m still going to be interested in reading a review of some mythical record from that era by a journalist who has some expertise. So, I think it should be able to coexist. But that’s my opinion. Because I belong to a generation that is right in the middle. I don’t just read anything, I just don’t watch TikTok. But the future is uncertain.
Within the new strategies and ways of contemplating communication in the media, the figure of influencers appears, who currently play a very important role in the promotion of events. How do you integrate influencers in your communication strategy and what benefits do they bring in comparison with traditional media?
I think the word influencer has also gone out of fashion. It has fallen into a certain weariness. There was talk now, after Coachella, if there was a certain “influencer fatigue”. This year we’ve seen how the sales of some festivals that had been going like gangbusters have declined. We’re seeing that a lot of people are no longer influenced just because someone says, “Well, this is really the eyeliner you should be using”. Yes, of course, but because they’re paid to promote it. I think we are now much more aware of the fact that these people have a job and their job is to promote products.
I think the word ‘influencer’ has fallen into a certain weariness. After Coachella, there was talk of ‘influencer fatigue.’ Festival sales are declining, and people are less influenced just because someone endorses a product. We’re now more aware that promoting products is their job.
Marta Pallarès for Xceed (2024)
So, whereas before you would probably buy the first makeup, cologne, vacation, tourist destination, or festival you were told about, now people know that these people are getting paid for doing this. So there is a certain tiredness of showing off that is, let’s say, linked to “traditional influencerism”, the one that simply takes selfies.
I think that influencer niches are being created. Not everyone is good enough to sell anything. This year we are going to be working with content creators –which is probably a kinder and more accurate word than “influencer”–, who only work in the music world. The festival is not going to directly invite models, models… although the brands are indeed free, within certain limits, to invite whoever they want… That’s not exactly what we do, nor have we ever done. We prefer to work with people we know, who understand the festival we have, and who understand the values we have because it goes beyond music.
We are a diverse festival. We are a festival that is committed to the LGBT community. We are a festival that wants to be more sustainable and at the same time is bringing a lineup that is always the most advanced of what is happening today or what will happen tomorrow and that also continues to have big names that have been part of our history. And if you don’t understand that, it doesn’t make any sense to us. In the end, the audience these people would be talking to would not be our audience, so it would be a waste of time, money, and credibility.
What do you think are the most effective ways to capture the media’s attention, from your perspective as a brand, and ensure positive and extensive coverage of an event?
I think that nowadays you have to differentiate yourself through different objectives and you have to have different points of attention. In the end, yes, posters are attractive, but you also have to have a story behind it. It’s not enough to just say, “We have Lana del Rey”. Okay, yes, but that captures a very specific moment, which is the announcement of the lineup.
You have to have a communication strategy that offers you various inputs throughout the year. That is what we always do. We have just announced our sustainability campaign for this year. Everything we are going to be doing at the Forum to offset the carbon footprint is to have more and more food trucks that are vegan, which obviously also contributes to improving the environment. How we are powering several stages with only electric energy, dispensing with oil and fossil fuels.
That is one part of it. A few weeks ago we announced that we are once again partners of the UN Sustainable Development Goals campaign, which is about sustainability, but also involves education and gender equality because the UN campaign understands that there is no sustainable development if it is not for everyone. Therefore, access to education and gender parity are advocated. So we are also aligned with that.
But we have also announced, as I was saying, food trucks. We also want to have a specific press release about what you will be able to eat, and what you will be able to drink because, in the end, we know that this is a public that is interested in music but also likes to eat well. So, if you know that there is a pulled pork place that is incredible, you are going to want to try it. And we work with food trucks that also usually have restaurants.
But we also previously announced another note about Boiler Room only. Because Boiler Room is a space that has a life of its own beyond the festival and some people really spend the festival in the Boiler Room.
So, distributing all these threads, these items throughout the year, make it continue to be relevant and relevant to different media. For example, one year we did a campaign where we invited Michelin-starred chefs to cook here, and we had gastronomy media that were interested in covering it.
Now we have purely electronic media and we know that they come to focus on the Boiler, on the Warehouse -which this year is going to have a sound system like we have never had before-, and in the late hours of the night. So we try to distribute all the communication and in the end, each media outlet will take what interests them the most.
I would like to ask you a little about the process of accreditation of journalists, what criteria do you follow to accredit journalists who are still in the media at Primavera Sound?
The criteria is again a little bit about the content creators. It doesn’t have to be very big. What interest is it going to have for your readers if you do a review of Primavera Sound when it’s obvious that you don’t work in music, that you don’t understand who Charli xcx is, or who Dorian Electra is? So, yes, I can accredit you because you have a lot of readers, but that’s not going to make me more relevant, nor am I going to sell one more ticket. While there may be a very small media from Costa Rica –we had never had anyone in Costa Rica until a few years ago–, and we said: “Sure, this media has not come before, nor is it very big, because in the end, the country is what it is”. But if we see that they are talking about music news in all of Latin America, that they are a very young team, that they have very good taste, that they understand what is happening there, that they understand what we do, then we are going to accredit them.
So, it is true that the percentage of new applications is relatively small. There are many media. In the end, the festival is already 24 years old, not all editions, obviously, because of #pandemic, but it was born in 2001. So many media have already come before. They write to you again, they present last year’s coverage, which we usually already have because a clipping is done afterward, and you say: “Ah, look, what a cool report they did. Oh, look, at the end they interviewed with I this guy, I didn’t know that, but it was interesting”. If things are done well, we will continue to accredit them. And those who are new and we do not know them, well, we have an accreditation team that looks at who they are, how they do it, and if they are already doing well, then obviously we will invite them.
You just mentioned COVID, and we wanted to ask you about the perspectives of Primavera Sound. Have you noticed a transition in the percentage of national versus international audience post-COVID? And, if so, are there any factors such as the drop in purchasing power, or the rise in prices that have influenced this transition?
Well, we are still at about the same percentage as we were post-COVID. Except in 2022, which 2022 was an anomaly, and a lot of people came from abroad, many more people from abroad than usual. This year we were almost around 70% of the international public.
On the issue of purchasing power, we are one of the festivals that have raised the price less, that is to say, we have not raised it, the last ticket tier yes, but we started with a lower price than last year and the first tier was also lower than the first tier of last year. While all the festivals at the international level have raised their prices quite a lot because inflation has been very noticeable.
Therefore, we continue to be a festival that is affordable for the public from abroad, taking into account that they have to pay for flights and accommodation, and we understand that for the public here, who do not have to pay any extra, because either they are living at home, or they will always have a friend to let them crash on a sofa, we continue to be a festival that has kept the prices quite low.
I understand that suddenly, when someone doesn’t know the industry and says: “But this costs 300 euros, this is a lot”. If you look at the prices of international festivals, which are our competition, because we do not compete against the smallest festival that takes place in Malgrat de Mar, we are a festival that is still quite affordable. And above all also taking into account how the prices of big concerts are also growing in a very exorbitant way. An arena concert, right now can be perfectly 120, 130, 150, if we get into a Golden Ring in a stadium, 200, and you say, well, in the end, this is a concert. Whereas here it is a week of concerts.
So, personally, I’ve been a user of Primavera Sound for many years, and I think it’s still good. We also have facilities, we work with Youth Discounts from the Government, so you can pay for the festival with the Bono Cultural, we have reductions with the Carnet Jove.
Let’s focus on crisis management. How do you deal with controversial communications issues? For example, last year’s Madrid edition, for which there was a lot of controversy, many different opinions… In the end, it was an anomaly within the festival, as we have seen that it only lasted one edition. How do you deal with crisis periods within the brand? What was your strategy during and after the Madrid event after the opinions received from the media and users?
I think that for crisis communications you have to be prepared, but mentally, because you don’t know what the crisis is going to be. You’re not going to know if the power grid goes down and suddenly the PDAs don’t work, or if the stage lights don’t work. You don’t know if it could be a cancellation, you don’t know if it could be a terrible storm, you don’t know if the buses could go on strike, you don’t know what it’s going to be, you don’t know if Godzilla is going to come through the middle of the Mediterranean and if he’s going to enter the Parc del Fòrum. But I do think you have to have a certain mindset that there are things that can happen.
Then, when they happen, you always have to identify very clearly who is the person who can give you an answer within your team to what is happening. If there is a problem with the power grid going down, you will have to be talking to coordination and logistics. If there is a cancellation of an artist, you have to be constantly in contact with booking and obviously with management, with all this. You always have to be very clear about who is going to be the person within each team who is going to give you the fastest, most effective, and most truthful response to the problem that is occurring.
On issues like what happened with Madrid, in the end, I think what happened is that Madrid covered up an incredibly successful edition in Barcelona. Because Barcelona was a marvel last year. In 2022 we came from the pandemic, some people said: “There are still a lot of people, we were not used to being close to other people”. On Thursday we had some problems with bars that were solved after a few hours, but that happened… But in 2023 Barcelona was wonderful. It was a bit sad that the problems in Madrid had covered up such a wonderful edition as Barcelona was.
After all, all you can do is explain the situation without trying to justify yourself. It rained out five out of six weeks in the lead-up, which gave us problems getting the buses there. There was an enclosure that didn’t work. On an artistic level, it was a success, those who were there enjoyed it because they were very well. They were comfortable because the lineup was the same as in Barcelona. So it’s like, well, now I’m passing a screen that we passed last year. I mean, right now I’m looking at the Parc del Fòrum as we speak and I know that I have an edition and an opportunity to start in four days. So, to learn, to evolve… If they ask you, to say “Well, I will ask it for you” if you don’t have the information at that moment, but to give a logical explanation and verify what is happening, you can’t do anything else.
Finally, we would like you to address event promoters who are just starting out, what advice would you give them regarding press and public relations management and what aspects do you think they should prioritize in order to maximize the media coverage and impact of these events?
I think you have to be very clear about who you are and who your audience is. Because without that, you are not going to be able to build a media strategy. If you are an electronic music festival with super underground artists who are in their niche, who do a very specific type of techno, then suddenly trying to get an interview in El Mundo doesn’t make any sense. But not because the media won’t be interested in you, it’s because your audience doesn’t read that media. It is not a “one size fits all”. You have to be very clear about that. Who are you? And who are you doing it for? You have to think about what you read. You have to think about what you listen to. You have to think about who influences you. And with that, you’re going to have a very clear answer.
If you are a programmer who works 57 hours every day on DJ Mag, then it’s obvious that when you are going to make your festival, it’s DJ Mag that you have to call. If you are trying to make a classical music festival, you think, “Well, the interviews with the people I’m interested in are in La Vanguardia”. Then, propose it to La Vanguardia. I think that’s what you have to do.
And finally, which artist are you most looking forward to seeing in this edition?
Well, look, I’m changing every day. But right now, just before you arrived, I noticed that my partners at the table were looking at me. I said, “What’s going on?” I took off my headphones. And she says, “Marta, girl, it’s just that you’re moving the table by moving your feet.” And I say, “Okay, it’s not my fault, it’s Charli xcx’s fault.” So today I will go for Charli.
