Primavera Sound reveals one of the best festival line-ups of 2018

With Glastonbury taking a break in 2018, plenty of festival-goers are using this year as an opportunity to travel abroad for their summer festival needs.

Primavera Sound in Barcelona has been popular with British crowds for a number of years, by virtue of being only a short flight away, not requiring you to set up tents, and taking place by the Catalan coast in the height of summer.

And if that wasn’t enough of an excuse to get tickets, the line-up – announced last night – will have convinced plenty of people that this is the year to get on board.

The 2017 festival was headlined by Arcade Fire, Bon Iver and The xx, all making up for the withdrawal of original co-headliner Frank Ocean, and this year is already looking just as impressive.

For many, the biggest draw will be the chance to see the Arctic Monkeys play a festival set for the first time in years.

The Sheffield band have been off the grid since 2014, though frontman Alex Turner did play Primavera with side-project The Last Shadow Puppets in 2016, and the Barcelona date will come a week and a half before they visit the US for Firefly Festival.

Other headliners at the festival include Björk, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The National, Migos and Lorde, while there is quality right down the bill.

Mogwai and Haim, both of whom played secret sets at last year’s festival, will have full-fledged appearances in 2018.

Tickets for the festival, if you don’t have them already, are now priced at €215 (£189). However, bear in mind it’s a non-camping festival, so you’ll need to sort accommodation too (not to mention flights).

It runs from 30 May - 2 June and those of you who looked at the dates of the All Points East festival in London and joined some dots were mostly, but not entirely, vindicated.

Several of the headliners will move on to Barcelona after playing in London, but there will be some notable absentees at Primavera, such as LCD Soundsystem, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Phoenix.

Additionally, The xx and Sampha will not be returning, having played at Primavera last year.

(Images: Rex)