Blur to play Madrid tonight after opening night of Primavera cancelled

Blur will play a rearranged show in Madrid tonight after the opening day of the city’s inaugural edition of Primavera Sound was cancelled.

The Britpop legends had been due to take the stage at Ciudad del Rock tonight (June 8), but the decision was made yesterday to cancel the opening day of the Madrid festival, owing to poor weather and an ominous forecast for this afternoon.

This meant that sets from the likes of Blur, New Order, Le Tigre, Halsey, Ghost and Turnstile were pulled. However, Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree were apparently already in town and will now take to the stage at 8pm for a make up show at the huge La Riviera venue on the banks of the River Manzanares.

“[Tickets]…will be totally free and will be available through Accessticket starting at 4:00 p.m. exclusively for holders of a season ticket and day ticket on Thursday,” said a statement on Primavera Sound’s social media channels.

“Thursday ticket holders may come another day of their choice regardless of whether they [attend] a concert in [La Riviera] today,” the statement continued.

“At this time it is planned that the festival days of Friday and Saturday can be carried out normally,” the organisers concluded. “Thanks for the support received.”

The Madrid event is the first time the festival has been held in the Spanish capital. Its flagship event in Barcelona went ahead as planned last weekend, and saw headline sets from Blur, Rosalía and Kendrick Lamar.

The festival’s sister edition in Porto, Portugal began as planned last night (June 7) with a headline set from Lamar, despite a deluge of rain. The Compton rapper played a career-spanning set, and now heads for the Madrid festival tomorrow (June 9).