It was founded in 2001 by Pablo Soler as "a showcase for Spanish noise bands", originally held at the Poble Espanyol before moving to the Parc del Fòrum, a much larger site on the seafront, in 2005.

[5] The festival's image was originally oriented around indie rock, but in recent years has seen a larger presence of genres such as hip hop, electronic dance music and pop.

[20][21] The artists who have headlined the main Primavera Sound edition in Barcelona multiple times are Pulp, Sonic Youth, Wilco, Pixies, PJ Harvey, the Flaming Lips, Belle and Sebastian, My Bloody Valentine, the National, Patti Smith, Arcade Fire, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Interpol, Pavement, Tame Impala, the Strokes, Lorde, Phoenix, Blur, New Order, Kendrick Lamar, Rosalía and Justice.

[24] It continued to promote local indie and noise shows in Spain throughout the 1990s, but founder Pablo Soler was able to take the name back for a festival that he began planning in 2000.

[25] It featured four stages and 19 acts including Armand van Helden, Carl Craig, Los Planetas, Unkle and Yasuharu Konishi, the former frontman of Japanese band Pizzicato Five.

[30] Headliners included New Order, Iggy Pop’s Stooges live comeback, Sonic Youth and Steve Earle, with Gang of Four, Mercury Rev, The Human League, Arcade Fire and Tortoise directly underneath.

Other performers included Animal Collective, Babyshambles, Big Star, Deerhoof, Drive-By Truckers, Killing Joke, Richard Hawley, Sleater-Kinney and The Drones.

Other prominent acts included The Good, the Bad & the Queen, Maxïmo Park, Los Planetas, Spiritualized, Modest Mouse, Buzzcocks, The Durutti Column, Jonathan Richman, Built to Spill, Billy Bragg, Melvins performing Houdini, Low, Blonde Redhead and Isis.

Other performers included Tindersticks, The Sonics, Sebadoh, De La Soul, Young Marble Giants, Mission of Burma, Throbbing Gristle, Model 500, Nick Lowe, Vampire Weekend, MGMT and Bon Iver.

Aphex Twin, Bloc Party, Jarvis Cocker, Yo La Tengo, The Jayhawks, Spiritualized, Throwing Muses, Saint Etienne and The Jesus Lizard were also given prominent billing.

[46] Clash commented that Primavera Sound was the "younger brother" of Sónar, Barcelona's longer-running music festival, drawing praise for its "holier than thou indieness" despite the latter's international reputation.

[53][54] On Saturday night, large crowds gathered at the video screens set up by the Llevant stage to watch FC Barcelona defeat Manchester United in the 2011 Champions League final.

The lineup also featured Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Tame Impala, The Knife, James Blake, Band of Horses, Wu-Tang Clan and Los Planetas, among 260 acts.

Tame Impala, Explosions in the Sky, Air, Beach House, The Last Shadow Puppets, Beirut, Moderat, Deerhunter, Wild Nothing and Brian Wilson's Pet Sounds also played on the main stages.

[73] A new beach stage opened across a bridge at the Sant Adrià de Besòs port focusing on electronic music sets from artists including Sophie and Todd Terje.

[75] Arcade Fire, Mogwai and Haim performed secret sets, while Slayer, Miguel, Grace Jones, Run the Jewels and Solange also played on the main stage.

[83] Chvrches, The War on Drugs, Alex G, Father John Misty, Tyler, the Creator, Lykke Li and Car Seat Headrest were among the names that also played the main stages.

"[90] Big Thief, Courtney Barnett, Carly Rae Jepsen, Robyn and Kali Uchis also played the main stages, this year sponsored by SEAT and Pull&Bear.

[98] The 2020 edition originally featured Massive Attack, Pavement (in their first performance since their 2010 hiatus), The National, The Strokes, Lana del Rey, Tyler, the Creator, Bad Bunny and Disclosure as headliners.

Presented under the slogan "I'll be your mirror", the headliners first announced in November 2022 were Blur, Halsey, Kendrick Lamar, Depeche Mode, Rosalía and Calvin Harris, followed by New Order in March.

[120] On 22 July, Primavera Sound announced that it would not be returning to Madrid in 2024 because "the city does not have a site able to host an event of this magnitude and format in terms of audience demands, production requirements, and musical show.

"[21] Complaints were raised about the Ciudad del Rock complex's location 40 km away from Madrid's city center, long lines for shuttle buses to and from the venue, and overall poor logistics.

[121] Upon the release of the 2024 lineup, with headliners Pulp, Vampire Weekend and Justice on Thursday, Lana Del Rey, The National and Disclosure on Friday, and SZA, PJ Harvey, Mitski, FKA Twigs and Charli XCX on Saturday, the festival advertised the edition as showing "love for its own history.

[132][133] Primavera Sound takes place in the Parc del Fòrum, located in the southeast part of the Poblenou neighbourhood, between Barcelona and Sant Adrià de Besòs.

The two main stages, where the headliners and other popular acts perform, are located on the Plataforma Marina, a large flat terrain that was scheduled to hold a marine zoo but that remained to be a fairground and multipurpose venue after the project seemed non-viable due to the Spanish financial crisis.

[150] In 2018, the stage was moved from the underground car park to an outdoor location where Arcade Fire had played a secret set the year prior, allowing for the abandonment of the ticket system.

[108] With 460,500 tickets sold that year and entry into each venue on a first-come, first-serve basis, festivalgoers reported queueing over three hours ahead of time to ensure access to gigs such as a Megan Thee Stallion performance in a 2,000-capacity club.

[165] Alberto Guijarro, the festival's director, stated that “after years in Barcelona we organised a first edition in Porto to take advantage of musicians on tour, but it is a different type of event; what we do in Portugal is a Primavera boutique, more well-kept, smaller and with its own personality".

Upon the conclusion of the 2019 festival in Barcelona, Primavera Sound announced new editions in Los Angeles Historic Park in the United States, scheduled for September 2020, and London's Drumsheds venue, for June 2020.

[171] Other international performers at these editions included Arca, Beach House, Cat Power, Caroline Polachek, Charli XCX, Father John Misty, Japanese Breakfast, José González, Interpol, Mitski, and Phoebe Bridgers.