Summercase Festival: Barcelona

by Sandy Patel

A bi-focal festival in Barcelona and Madrid

""An opportunity for slightly more civilised festivals – loads of space, no neighbours, no camping and most importantly no mud""

Summercase, brought to us by promoter Sinnamon, is a bi-focal festival with bands playing on alternate days in Barcelona's Forum and Boadilla de Monte in Madrid (Friday's Barcelona bands playing Madrid on Saturday and vice versa). Here you'll get a quick overview of the happenings in Barcelona – we didn't go to Madrid for a day because that would have been silly.

The venue – the ironically named Parc Del Forum - is an imposing slab of concrete covered in photovoltaic angular structures with the odd bit of perfectly groomed foliage allowed to sneak in for good measure. This clean, powerful structure, a short metro ride from the city centre, presents an opportunity for slightly more civilised festivals – loads of space, no neighbours, no camping and most importantly no mud. The down side, inevitably, is that festivals are not really supposed to be civilised.

On the Friday we arrive just in time to catch the end of Dirty Pretty Things, before heading to Shout Out Louds and then watching the sunset with a dash of Belle And Sebastian. They have competition from My Latest Novel, who treat us to a fantastic performance. Their distinctive sound succeeds in being as palatable as it is individual.

The Super Furry Animals steal our hearts at 11.00, managing to get the entire crowd bouncing regardless of whether or not they know the words. A little later, Sigur Ros puts on an apparently legendry set but we are rather embarrassingly too busy jiving to The Cardigans to notice that we have more important places to be.

Daft Punk are charged with taking a crowd drunk on indie over into the world of dance and manage to pull a huge audience – electro-funk is something Barcelona does almost as well as the French. The recent release of greatest hits albums by both Massive Attack and Fatboy Slim means that in the later parts of the night we are treated to tune after tune.

Returning on Saturday for round two we get stuck into a hair of the dog whirl of The Dandy Warhols, Divine Comedy and Starsailor. Rufus Wainright is joined on stage by sister Lucy who, having been introduced as “my sister”, has to make an unfortunate entrance to cheers of “Martha”.

Meanwhile New Order are playing their guitars around their ankles and looking like they might have a coronary at any moment. Their efforts are well received, despite some light hearted jeers at the “abuelos” (grandparents). They return for an encore after having the whole of 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' sung back at them – a big complement from a crowd which had other places to be - namely Primal Scream.

Refreshed and once again ready to go, we look in on the Long Blondes just in time for super-brit-poppy latest single ‘Weekend Without Makeup’, before heading to join a messy crowd for a messy set by the Chemical Brothers. This is followed by Razorlight, who showcase their funky latest album with Johnny Borrell working his tight white trousers in style. All that is left is to see in the morning dancing away to Soulsavers, who do exactly what they say on the tin and make a seamless transition to the inevitable house set by the Razmataz Club's resident DJ Gato.

And so a new festival is born. Summercase manages to straddle the indie/dance divide more comfortably than most, playing to the taste of British tourists and the Barcelona dance/electro crowd alike. And for a British Barcelona bum, it is a rare treat that smells of home.

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