As the trees slowly begin to turn green and the mercury hits a scorching 16°C in the UK, the wider European festival landscape comes into view. Primavera Sound, which runs editions in both Barcelona and Porto, has been a popular landing spot for the UK’s music aficionados ever since its inception. The Barcelona festival in particular is an incredible destination, combining the best elements of a city break, beach holiday and clubbing weekend. This year’s edition, held between 3-7 June, looks set to continue that rich tradition.
Although many of the continent’s large-scale, multi-genre festivals have come and gone, Primavera has stood the test of time. The likes of Melt Festival in Germany and Exit Festival in Serbia have pulled down the shutters in recent years, with festivals increasingly skewing towards specific genres and catering to narrower demographics.
The multi-genre weekenders that have endured tend to be those that have consistently captured the musical zeitgeist. Few have done that better than Primavera, and since it began in 2001 its line-ups have served as a time capsule of global pop-culture. 2025’s edition was a perfect example, featuring pop-favourites Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan.
Primavera Sound 2026, sold out since February, is similarly stacked. A genre-defying lineup includes My Bloody Valentine, Gorillaz, Doja Cat, The xx and Massive Attack. But as the name above this particular marquee reads “Dance Wax”, we’ll be focusing on the electronic artists touching down in Catalonia. Here are five to keep an eye out for across an incredibly tantalising weekend.
Carl Cox
We’re beginning our preview, appropriately enough, at the very end. The festival proper kicks off on Thursday 4 June, and runs through to the early hours of Sunday morning. For those with enough youthful exuberance—or those who are simply battle-hardened—Sunday offers some absolute treats. The boy from South London has left an indelible mark on the UK dance music scene. There are few DJ booths of any repute that he hasn’t touched, serving pulverising techno, melodic house and uplifting soulful grooves in abundance. He is, put simply, one of the greatest DJs of all time. There is nobody better to drag Sunday’s weary bodies across the finish line than Carl Cox.
Overmono
From the pioneers straight to the breakout stars. Overmono’s exceptional live shows have set them apart from DJs of a similar ilk in recent years. Largely playing their own material, much of it drawn from their 2023 album Good Lies, their sets are raucous and innovative.
Having shot to prominence with their 2020 remix of For Those I Love’s “I Have a Love”, their rise has been meteoric. They’ve gone on to headline Glastonbury’s West Holts stage, and their collaborations with Joy Orbison (most notably alongside Kwengface on the ridiculous “Freedom 2”) have taken them stratospheric.
As well as having an abundance of unreleased IDs that serve to keep their live performances feeling fresh, the duo have just announced their brand new album Pure Devotion, set to release this August, which you can expect to hear in Barcelona soon.
KI/KI
For all of the considerable heft provided by Overmono, Carl Cox and the gang, nothing quite comes close to the indomitable sound of KI/KI. Hailing from Harderwijk, and having cut her teeth in Amsterdam, her relentless hard-style trace & techno is emblematic of the region. Our Dutch and German cousins are accustomed to producing breakneck, acidic techno sounds, but KI/KI does it better than most.
It’s a sound that DJ Heartstring, another standout from the new generation of trance DJs, would characterise as “Trance Dance Music”. KI/KI’s musical roots tie back to the uplifting sounds of the late-nineties, but this she is doing something else entirely—a raucous reimagining that pushes the BPM and injects a distinctly modern intensity. Last year’s “What’s a Girl to Do in 25” was sublime; taking the much-vaunted 2015 reissue of a classic and dragging it firmly up-to-date. It’s a stunning example of KI/KI’s unique take on contemporary dance music.
Last August brought a much- anticipated collaboration with Marlon Hoffstadt on “Losing Control”, alongside a mind-blowing “5-hours on the Beach” b2b set recorded on Zeebrugge Beach, Belgium. Having also sold-out a series of “5-hours-in” sets, and headlined Lowlands Festival with Job Jobse, Primavera is the next step in an astonishing rise.
Yosuke Yukimatsu
A slightly harder cut for anyone who hasn’t yet seen the Japanese DJ’s Boiler Room Tokyo set, Yosuke Yukimatsu has taken the road less travelled to this year’s Primavera. He was a regular on the Japanese club circuit in the early 2010s, before a tour with DJ Nobu established his reputation as one of the region’s most exciting talents. His sets often combine elements of classic American rock anthems, nosebleed techno and experimental bubblegum pop—a true pioneer and master of his own, very particular, craft.
Fresh off an astonishing set at this year’s Coachella Festival, Yukimatsu continues to feel impossible to predict. Opening with an Aerosmith cover before flitting through the likes of Bon Jovi, MGMT, The Prodigy and Joy Orbison is something most DJs could only ever dream of pulling off. He also offered welcome nods to one of PC Music’s finest experimental pop-princesses, dropping SOPHIE’s “Whole New World” and “OOH” amidst the chaos of his heavier selections. Empirion’s remix of The Prodigy’s “Firestarter” has also been pride of place in his record bag. It’s tremendous fun, and one not to miss this summer.
Berlioz
If all of this has sounded a little bit hectic so far, then you’ll be pleased to hear that Primavera offers a similarly rich selection of melodic, groovy, lo-fi house music. Although that is perhaps doing a disservice to Berlioz, a jazz-house fusion artist, multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer. He’s an obscenely talented musician, who has described his own sound as “if Matisse made house music”. Fittingly, he sampled the French visual artist on his 2022 record “The Danse”, a wonderful example of the silky, hypnotic, jazz-infused house music Berlioz creates. His stripped-back affair will be an an ideal tonic for when a mixture Catalonian heat, carafes of red wine and 140bpm has proven overwhelming.
Men I Trust
Possibly bending our own, self-imposed rules with this one. Men I Trust’s musical soundscapes aren’t electronic in the traditional sense, but their indie dream-pop sounds have laid the foundation for some excellent house remixes in recent years.
A move towards a folksy, acoustic sonic palette was crystallised in last year’s album Equus Asinus. It’s a wonderful record, but their recent live shows have leaned back into the bassier, livelier material that first made their name. Another album, Equus Caballus, followed just a couple of months later, and might well be the best they’ve ever created. They’re a wonderful band on a rich run of form, and well worth catching at Parc Del Forum.
