Cruïlla finds its place and closes with 76,000 attendees

2023-07-08 19:18:13

He crossroads, Now yes, you have found your place. Or so it seems. “We have been dreaming of this festival for years,” said the director of the Barcelona event, Jordi Herreruela, during the press conference to assess the XIII edition that they said goodbye to this Saturday Placebo y Antonia Font. «We are creating a new model, a 21st century way of doing things that sets trends. It is a big festival, but not that big, and in which the deal is as important or more important than the line-up”, he said.

That dream festival, crowned by performances as diverse as those of Rubén Blades, The Offspring, Sidonie, Omara Portuondo, Parov Stelar and Nicki Nicole, is the one that brought together this weekend at the Forum in Barcelona 76.000 personas: 12,000 on Wednesday, 16,000 on Thursday, 25,000 on Friday and some 23,000, pending refinement, on Saturday. “We don’t want to announce great growth or anything like that either,” Herreruela pointed out about figures that come to equal previous records. “We are advancing and consolidating in a calm way,” he said.

Herreruela maintains that, in addition to taking giant steps in terms of sustainability (this year’s Cruïlla was the first major festival to operate no generators; 13,000 liters of diesel have stopped being used and CO2 emissions have been reduced by 36,000 kilos), the great differential factor of the festival is the public. Not on stage, but on the track. «He is thinking for everyone, so that people can be who they want. That is what marks the way, “he celebrated.

Thus, the great triumph is in that 51 percent of “repeaters” and the almost 40 percent of the public that buys subscription to jump with The Offspring and dance salsa with Rubén Blades. “It’s a way to enjoy music dancing as a community and with great bands playing,” defends the director.

This new edition, also marked by the mobility problems derived from the works on the metro and the Tram, has also confirmed the eminently Barcelona character of the event: only 10 percent of the attendees are from outside the province of Barcelona, ​​while the percentage of foreign public is so ridiculous that not even is accounted for. Experience, adds Herreruela, is also important. “There are groups that have performed here and also at Mad Cool doing the same concert but the feeling is surely different,” she assured, referring to concerts like those in Sigur Ros.