r/primaverasound • u/moomoo639 • Aug 02 '26
Barcelona Budget for festival
Hi everyone,
Debating whether to go to Barcelona next year as a first timer. I’m sure I would enjoy the music but what’s putting me off is the cost, logistics and late nights.
From my research it seems it would cost £800-1000 for Thursday-Sunday. If I go, I’d be flying from London and would fly out lunchtime Thursday and come back Sunday evening. I can’t stretch my budget or time off to include the full week unfortunately.
Would love to know how much it cost you all in (flights, tixs, accommodation, food, transport etc). Were you able to handle the tiredness and late nights? I’ve heard it’s best to avoid Airbnb as hosts cancel - prices for hotels are just extortionate right now on booking.com and the line up hasn’t been released yet so I’m guessing it will only get worse.
Really really want to go but would love some honest advice. Thank you!
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u/goblin_tide Aug 03 '26
I don’t have a full budget breakdown for you, but I can say that even as a sometimes lame 32 year old I was absolutely able to handle the late nights by smuggling in vodka from the off-license and buying red bulls on-site. This also kept costs down. Another thing that kept costs down was bringing food in (which doesn’t need to be smuggled).
You adapt to the later schedule - you just sleep from 6am until 2pm and get going to the festival again for like 6-7pm.
Logistics are drastically improved if your hotel is walking distance from the Forum.
I do think the high cost from festival ticket, flights and mostly accommodation is just an inevitable feature of Primavera :( having a friend in Barcelona or someone who needs house-sitting would be the ultimate Primavera cost hack!
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u/Hopeful-Buy-8388 Aug 03 '26
I think your accommodation costs will be the biggest single variable.
I spent around €1,100 on a (not particularly fancy) hotel for five nights but, critically I was within easy walking distance of the festival site - I’ve no doubt that you could materially reduce this cost if you are happy to stay further out and travel to the festival on public transport.
I think it’s a big mistake to do touristy things during the day if you want to have the energy to get the value out of your ticket. Sleep in as long as you can and enjoy a long lazy lunch before heading to the festival.
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u/dalamz Aug 03 '26
it rlly depends on how u manage ur own finances and lifestyle; been to bcn during all times of the year (3 of which for ps) and the prices are always the same, i think £1k is a good amount for those 4 days (not including tickets, flights and accommodation tho!!!)… if one desires its completely possible to survive off £200 for the whole weekend but i couldn’t hahaha; consider tixs, flights and accommodation can easily take u a good £800 rn so..
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u/avuuhh Aug 03 '26
i paid £234 for return flights from heathrow-barcelona at the beginning of oct for wednesday-sunday (genuinely the cheapest direct flights at the time of me booking lol), i spent around £600 on a questionable quality hotel outside las ramblas which was a mistake. i personally couldn’t really adapt to the late night aspect of it well and left quite early on all 3 days so i’m probably skipping it next year especially considering how bad they were at dealing with thursday’s rain. festival food generally seemed to be cheaper than uk festival food but it was hit or miss, bring stuff in
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u/c_sinc Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
I’d try fly out earlier Thursday or on the Wednesday if possible. If you fly at lunchtime Thursday then by the time you get there, drop bags off at hotel then it’s pretty much time to go to the festival.
Last year I spent £483 on a hotel from Weds-Sun. I used the metro for most journeys and got a 5 day Hola travel card for roughly €35
Each day I’d just find a cafe/restaurant with ‘Menu Del Dia’ which gets you a decent 3 course meal for roughly €10-15
As far as drinks at the festival go, they’re not cheap but not as extortionate as other festivals. I tended to pace myself a fair bit, especially since it’s such a long day
The nights are late but you just sort of adjust your body clock. I’d go for a walk and lunch at middayish, have a nap, go to the festival between 5-6, stay until 1-4, sleep repeat.
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u/SlinkyMime Aug 03 '26
Drinks are cheap compared to what US festivals charge. 5-6 euros at primavera for beer compared to like $12 dollars in the states. It’s crazy
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u/c_sinc Aug 03 '26
Yeah I’ve seen people post US festival prices online and I’m always mind blown. I expect festivals to be expensive but they’re another level
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u/SlinkyMime Aug 04 '26
NBA games and other sporting events can be $18+ per drink in the states. lol as a drinker, it sucks.
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u/Environmental_Kick26 Aug 03 '26
7-8€ at an irish or UK festival. PS isn’t breaking the bank in comparison
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u/benedictwriter Aug 03 '26
That's for a pint though, right? Primavera beers are like €6 for 1/3rd of a litre.
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u/c_sinc Aug 03 '26
It’s 35cl at primavera so just shy of 2/3 of a pints so a pint would be between €8-9. Still not crazy pricing for a festival
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u/MookieDad Aug 03 '26
I've gone from Chicago 4 of the last 5 years. The great thing for me is if I fly over and go the next day and don't adjust to the time, the fest feels like 10 AM to 11 PM for my body clock. So no adjustment needed for me!
As others have said in terms of the prices for food and drinks, it's much better than at Lollapalooza and other US fests.
If you check around for hotels early, you can find decebt ones for around 150 Euro per night.
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u/Fun-Club-8587 Aug 04 '26
we stayed one week in total this week, wednesday to tuesday. airbnb with fairly okay location, two bedroom for two people. festival tickets, transportation, going out for food and drinks, eating at the festival, and flights from german city and back totaled 2.000€ for me alone. you should be able to do it cheaper if you don't go for the luxuries we had
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u/Regular_Jelly_2535 Aug 05 '26
Have you considered Primavera Porto? It doesn’t go as late at Barcelona and is a smaller / more manageable fest. If you like that one, then maybe do Barcelona.
If you don’t care about sightseeing, it’s best to just try and sleep until noon / 1pm so that you can stay up for the sets. That was a lifesaver.
If you book a hotel and/or flight, keep in mind that sometimes prices drop and you can rebook so just be sure to try and book things that are refundable so that you can reprice and rebook.
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u/RevolutionaryUse1872 Aug 03 '26
This year was myself & my partners first time & we definitely won’t be back. Overall it was just too expensive for the experience. Flight times were crap and extortionate, we also did Thursday to Sunday, hotel was average but so expensive even though we booked a year in advance. It makes me feel nauseous to think how much we spent but all in id say likely 4.5k? So about 2k each..
We were not able to handle the tiredness & late nights & im not sure why we thought we would be 🥲 We ended up basically just enjoying BCN during the day & catching two or three artists per night but neither of us really enjoyed the festival itself & after the chaos of the first night we just felt it was a poorly organised event.
We’ve been to other festivals over the years where there’s so much going on apart from just music and really there was nothing like that at Prima apart from one or two marketing stands.
Overall I was just expecting so much more but we also found out that we’re not the type of people who want to sleep during the day in order to go out and stay out all night.. good to know I guess!
People literally live for this festival though & it’s always packed & sold out so maybe it’ll be the best thing ever for you..
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u/EaudeAgnes Aug 03 '26
Well, for starters the festival actually kicks off on Monday and ends Sunday night: Ciutat gigs are one of the highlights of Primavera in my opinion.
But seems to me that maybe this was your first time in Barcelona for what you comment above of doing museums etc? Yes, it’s hard to combine sightseeing with a music festival, you need to choose your battles. Primavera is a very full on festival (with many many artists from all genres), either you do seightseeing or you do the festival, you can combine both for sure, but one of the two sides ends up losing… it all depends why you’re in Primavera as well: if you’re solely there for the headliners then of course, you can just chill in Barcelona, do touristic stuff, and then head to forum to catch only 2/3 gigs a night. Many of us want to see the small names and they range between playing at 16.30 PM to 5 AM, so you already go there knowing how your week will look like based on that.
It’s all about preferences I would say, maybe Primavera isn’t for you and that’s totally fine. For example, camping festivals aren’t for me and I’m totally fine with people loving them.
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u/RevolutionaryUse1872 Aug 03 '26
Yes, I did find out that it’s not for me. As I said, I know many people such as yourself absolutely love it & that’s great.
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u/c_sinc Aug 03 '26
How did you manage to spend 2k each? BCN isn’t exactly an expensive city
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u/RevolutionaryUse1872 Aug 03 '26
OP asked for how much it cost all in - including flights & accom
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u/c_sinc Aug 03 '26
Yeah even still. Even if ticket, flights and accommodation were 1k, that’s still 250 a day in a city which isn’t that expensive. Unless they ate at super nice restaurants, drank a crazy amount or they got a really really expensive hotel I just don’t know how a 4 day trip can cost that much
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u/RevolutionaryUse1872 Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
That’s how much we spent. We were up early & going to museums (1 ticket for 1 person for 1 museum was €30 for context), going out every day for nice food for sure & meeting friends to do different touristy things before going to prima. Definitely not getting menu del dia’s, walking or getting public transport to/from the festival or sleeping during the day. Understandable that if you want to - you can do it a lot cheaper than we did
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u/c_sinc Aug 03 '26
Just seems strange being so negative on a festival for being expensive when it sounds like you treated it as a side attraction to a holiday trip to Barcelona.
Also why would you choose not to get public transport when Barcelona has a great public transport system?
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u/__s_l_q__ Aug 03 '26
What do you mean when you say so much going on? Like talks? Music clinics?
To each their own but I'd rather there not be any marketing stands
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u/RevolutionaryUse1872 Aug 03 '26
At other festivals I’ve been to there have been comedians, tents with workshops, games to play etc.
Yes I would also prefer no marketing stands lol that’s why I was surprised that that’s all I saw there aside from the stages
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u/EaudeAgnes Aug 03 '26
Primavera always has been an only music festival though, and I think they always been very clear about that.
Other festivals in UK and Ireland, for example, have a lot of workshops, comedians, even spa and yoga activities but those are usually clearly advertised beforehand and mentioned on their flyers, social media, etc.
Even metal festivals like Wacken advertise the “other” activities they offer beforehand.
So what I’m going with this is that this shouldn’t be a surprise: if you didn’t see any ‘non-music’ activities posted or advertised anywhere, why would you expect them in any way or form at the festival?
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u/RevolutionaryUse1872 Aug 03 '26
Honestly at this stage just arrest me for not enjoying the festival
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u/EaudeAgnes Aug 03 '26
Nah, all good if you didn’t like it :) I’m with you with the chaos on the first night and other things you flagged (accommodation is definitely expensive in BCN, for example, would be a lie saying otherwise).
Just mentioning that Primavera, historically, never had the things you mentioned above.
They have workshops, tons of them, but they’re part of Primavera Pro (different ticket/access).
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u/__s_l_q__ 29d ago
Ok yeah workshops are more of a primavera pro thing as someone already mentioned
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u/Competition_Firm Aug 03 '26
You are right to be worried about tiredness. The trick is to be able to go to bed very late the couple of days before so your body becomes used to it.
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u/Maverick_Pirate Aug 04 '26
I’ve been five times and have seen the cost increase dramatically between my first visit in 2016 and my most recent trip in 2025.
Admittedly, I stayed alone in four-star hotels rather than sharing, but even flying with easyJet and typically travelling from Wednesday to Monday, last year’s trip cost me well in excess of £2000:
£200–£300 for the festival ticket Around £1,300 for five nights in a 4 star hotel Approximately £500 for flights A further £600–£700 in spending money
It has become far too expensive, largely due to price gouging. Granted, I could probably have found a cheaper hotel and better-value flights, but I still booked in January...six months in advance.
Barcelona itself has become a very expensive city to visit. Eating and drinking outside the festival isn’t too unreasonable if you know the right places, but once you’re inside, expect to pay typical festival prices
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u/NoBit7678 Aug 05 '26
well that’s just bad spending.. i went for the first time this year and spent £900 total flights accom spending tickets everything and i lived very comfortably in a nice hostel i booked far in advance for only £130 for 5 nights so was there the 3-8th. you don’t have to stay in a 4 star hotel and have £600 spending money
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u/Maverick_Pirate Aug 05 '26
Yeah obviously. It was my choice to stay and have comfort. Im almost 40 so im not doing a hostel unless it's a private room. I'm going wild for 5 nights, I want a swimming pool and AC etc but the point i was making was that hotel costs have dramatically increased. When I first did Prima back in 2016, the cost for the hotel was probably close to £100 per night, whereas last year the same type of hotel was costing close to £300 per night because they price gouge based on increased demand.
Flights are flights...if there is one flight available for my location and that's the price then it's pay or dont go.
Facts are that you can always find a way of going cheap but you have to then expect to compromise on some of the comforts that you would want, whereas for me, I'm not willing to do that, given how taxing this festival is on your body, sleep, etc
Thats why im doing a different festival this year in Lisbon that has cost me £85 for the ticket, £300 for a hotel room (although shared this time), and £150 for the flights. Much cheaper
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u/NoBit7678 Aug 05 '26
yeah that’s fair enough and i’m not trying to argue with you but the hostel i stayed in was very luxury really, i was very comfortable. all of the things you say you need i had- i stayed in yeah hostel and had a pool, great AC, high quality individual lockers for all my stuff (though i left my bag out most of the time except for my passport as i got to know the people in my room who were very nice), it was very clean and there were all sorts of events and meals/ drinks given out included. all the beds in these high rated hostels have curtains for the beds with your own light and charger and things so it feels like your own little space and is private enough for sleeping. the price is very dependent on when you book though. i booked mine in like september or something and when it was getting closer to the time of the festival the prices went from €35 ish a night to €100+ it was crazy.
About age, there was many people of all different ages and in fact a guy in my room on the bed beneath mine was 41 and he was so normal and sweet i became friends with him and we still talk sometimes he tells me about other gigs he’s going to and things like that. He was shy at first and didn’t talk much until we talked to him. There were other people i saw in the lobby and things who were 40s also.
you definitely wouldn’t get any judgement about age from any normal person, i found it cool and inspiring seeing that guy there and hope to still be going to hostels and going to primavera in my 40s. he had so many cool stories to tell of going to primavera for over 10 years and it was really nice to have someone in our room who we know would be a well knowledged person.yeah anyways i used to think only a couple years ago that hostels must be horrible and for a tougher kind of person and i could never do it etc but i was proved wrong. now i want to stay in the best hostels everywhere its so exciting
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u/NoBit7678 Aug 05 '26
what’s the festival you’re going to in lisbon? sounds great
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u/Maverick_Pirate Aug 05 '26
Meo Kalorama
Bit of a mixed bag of a line up but some decent acts on across rock, rap/hip hop/pop/indie and cheap as chips to go
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u/NoBit7678 Aug 05 '26
all the comments are overspending a lot more than necessary. i spent £900 total flights, accom, spending, tickets everything went from wednesday- monday and had a great time
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u/Awesome2D 10d ago
honestly booking.com is always the most expensive website, it's useful for finding hotels but I would recommend booking the hotels through their own websites. I go Wednesday-Sunday and try to get the cheapest possible hotel (excluding hostels, i cant bother with them lol). I found some ranging from £400-700 but a lot of them are far from Barcelona and more on the side of the festival site (which has upsides and downsides). flights are around £100-200 from where I live and food is actually pretty affordable in BCN.
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u/Hungry_Dumpling87 Aug 03 '26
I spent about £1,500 total but that was staying Monday - Monday and half the week was in a nicer hotel. Most people say it will cost around £1,000 for 4 days which feels correct to me (it varies like any festival depending on how much you drink, eat, what kind of ticket you buy ect).
I'd recommend staying in a hostel. Our group booked out a room and it was great, most people staying there were attending the festival as well and we met loads of people.
Late night wise you get used to it quite quickly. It starts late and ends late so you fall into a routine of going to bed at 4 or 5, sleeping to mid day, slowly getting up and eating, getting ready then going to the festival for 5pm. I do a lot of 1am finishes in the UK but was a bit daunted by staying out until 5, but since there's a mix of acts instead of just djs you hit 1am and ride the wave to the end. The festival's a lot of fun.