Dua Lipa and Pearl Jam are the first confirmed headliners for Mad Cool 2024, which will be held in July in Madrid. The lineup revealed this morning leaves several gaps for other headliners, specifically two big ones on Friday, and one more on Saturday. Dua Lipa will perform on Wednesday and Pearl Jam on Thursday.
We do know succulent names in the second line. Among them, Avril Lavigne, Garbage, Smashing Pumpkins or Jessie Ware. Also confirmed are Janelle Monáe, Bring Me the Horizon, Arlo Parks, The Breeders, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Alvvays, Sleaford Mods, Nothing But Thieves, Tom Odell, Mando Diao, Bomba Estéreo, Sofi Tukker, Genesis Owusu and Ashnikko.
Among the new values being bet on are Kenya Grace, Julieta or Motxila 21, the group of 15 young people with Down syndrome that has already performed in various places around the world with artists such as El Drogas.
In general, the festival bases its editorial line on the combination of great rock artists (or grunge, as is the case with Pearl Jam), with current pop, Dua Lipa being the greatest expression of the latter. Several journalists at the Madrid presentation highlighted the absence of urban or Latin names, something with which the director of Mad Cool, Javier Arnáiz, agrees: «The poster has always been eclectic and we don’t want to go away from there. They asked me about urban bands, but we have never wanted to follow that artistic line. There are touches, we have Rels B, but we have not stood out for being an urban festival. “We believe that is the line we have to follow.” Asked by JENESAISPOP if the unknown headliners will tip the balance towards pop or rock, Arnáiz responded that the two lines that we already know will be followed. He has also recalled that, sometimes, artists do not want to hold festivals to focus on stadiums, as will be “the case of Taylor Swift” next year.
On the other hand, the director of Mad Cool has acknowledged that there will be a reduction in capacity in the same space, being “more open” and with a different layout. “Things are going to be removed to favor the flow,” he indicated, revealing that there will be 6 stages instead of 8. Of course, he has not given the new number of maximum attendees because the technicians are deciding it, and he has denied that the year past there would be excess capacity. «There was no excess capacity. The engineers established a legal capacity, and it was met, but they have seen that this legal capacity must be lowered, things must be removed from the way, for everything to work. It’s trial and error. It is a very big festival and we have to do trial and error every year. When we were at IFEMA, there were altercations at the entrances the first year, and not the second. Every year we will get better. We are a festival that has changed venues in a very short time.
Regarding minimizing the acoustic impact, and the entrance and exit, he has spoken of an effort by neighbors and promoters to make things work, citing the case of the Wanda, which at the beginning “was chaos, now that chaos continues to exist , but increasingly controlled. Furthermore, he believes that Mad Cool is a festival that “will end up closing at 1” in the morning, to be on par with what is done in Europe.
Finally, the plan to resume Mad Cool Sunset remains on the shelf until later, since they first want to establish Mad Cool in the new venue. If there is a franchise in another city by the company “it will not be under the name of Mad Cool”, nor will the brand be taken to other cities in the world, in the manner of Primavera Sound or Sónar. “They have called us from many places, but we have to focus on Madrid.”
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