Primavera Sound 2025 was herstory

Hi beautiful people. I have landed back in New York and am extremely disoriented. I came back to quite a few new subscribers coming from Embedded by Kate Lindsay and Nick Catucci, so welcome! What a nice homecoming surprise.

For those of you who are new here, I am Daysia Tolentino and I am, historically, an internet culture reporter. My beat has expanded over the past year or so, which is why I’ve opted to describe myself as a culture journalist more broadly. The reasons for this are in line with what Kate wrote in her Embedded story last week asking if the internet culture reporter job is dead. 

Essentially, that kind of work is harder to come by lately, and as someone who identifies more with the entertainment side of internet culture than the tech side, I’ve been taking more gigs in that realm of media. I think you will find that many journalists in my position — out of work, with no digital culture jobs left — have fallen into either of those two buckets if they aren’t pursuing the internet culture beat independently (granted there’s overlap between all three). 

I think internet culture in general is in a weird spot right now, in part due to the tech elite that every outlet is desperate to cover right now. I wrote a little bit about that a couple weeks ago here.

Anyways, today’s newsletter is mostly not about the internet. It is about my experience at Primavera Sound in Barcelona last week and a guide for those of you who may want to go next year. Last Primavera post I swear <3 

Anyways, if you want to read the full guide, subscribe to the Yapper tier so you don’t miss it. 

Herstory was made last weekend. 

Primavera Sound 2025 was one for the books — and for the poptimists. With the Powerpop Girls — Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter — headlining the festival, there were very high expectations. And boy, did they deliver!

But a festival is not simply built on its headliners, and Primavera Sound is known for its wide-ranging, eclectic lineups. This year was stacked beyond the top bill, including some of the hottest post-punk acts like IDLES and Fontaines D.C.; everyone’s favorite hardcore band right now Turnstile; NYC club darlings The Dare, Fcukers, and Frost Children; art pop connoisseurs FKA Twigs and Magdalena Bay; some of my favorite women in rock Beabadoobee, Haim, and Wet Leg; and so many more. 

I went to Primavera last year and had the time of my life. This year was undoubtedly amazing, but I was a little more anxious this time around. I think part of it was the size of the crowds — which, considering the festival sold out this year, were a lot bigger than last time. But it was something else too. Have you ever been in a moment and felt too aware that it was once-in-a-lifetime? Maybe that’s a specific mental illness to me… but a voice in the back of my head kept asking: Am I enjoying this correctly? Taking enough photos/videos for content while also living in the moment enough? 

When I got over those thoughts, I had a really good time. I love parties and Primavera is like a big outdoor club. It is the best music festival experience I have had, although I admittedly have pretty limited experience. Early bird tickets for next year go on sale today and I’m considering buying blind! So much for curbing that concert spending I mentioned a couple weeks ago.

Anyways, here are my top five highlights of Primavera Sound 2025.

Charli, Chappell, and Sabrina showed us why they are the Powerpuff Girls of pop

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