Sen Senra and Rodrigo Cuevas reign in the tenth anniversary of Festival B

There could have been more, many more, the 10,000 people gathered this Friday at the Parc del Fòrum to attend the most eclectic of the great festivals held in Barcelona. But the decorum of the City Council with the neighborhood rest wants this figure to be the one that limits and at the same time makes possible a festival that turns its smallness into greatness, turning it into a net to catch new trends such as Ralphie Choo, who will perform in Saturday’s session to collect the success achieved with Rosalía.

The audience gathered on the first day, between 18 and 40 years old, usually dedicated to the indie sound dominated by guitars, found a bit of this in bands like Melenas or the Argentinians He Killed a Motorized Policeman. At their side, in equal or greater numbers, many other sounds such as the bedroom pop of Rusowksy, Ralphie Choo’s partner in misdeeds, the new generation punk of La Elite, or the electronic hardcore of Nerve Agent. Without forgetting this year the commitment to electronic dance music brought together on the Ra-B stage, located in the upper part of the venue.

A lot, a lot of variety with hooks like Sen Senra, Rodrigo Cuevas or Guillem Gisbert spread across two stages, one at each end of the lower part of the Forum, between which an audience that was difficult to define beyond confirming the local origin in their practice passed. entirety, which gathered in good numbers since the doors opened after five in the afternoon.

Sen Senra was the most wanted of the night as it became clear as soon as he rang Lying in the garden watching the sunset after half past nine at night. The audience’s choirs accompanied Christian Senra all night long, who appeared hidden behind a hood (which he removed) and sunglasses (not these) and with the company of drums and keyboards in a corner of the stage. He didn’t need anything more to take over the stage with his reedy voice and the pop melodies that the Galician creates, whether the well-known I don’t want to be a singer or la intimate I don’t need you anymorewhich he performed alone with his guitar, in a concert that began intimately, and managed to connect with the largest audience of the day. For this he had very special help in Familya nostalgic story for which he introduced Juan Habichuela, who aflamenced the theme with elegance. It was in the second part of the performance, which became a soft crescendo featuring the accelerated bass drum of Crying x 1the hip hop rhythm of what happiness o he drum’n’bass of Perfecta song that put an end to a performance that demonstrates the convening power of the new generation of Spanish musicians.

Hours before, the afternoon had begun with none other than Rodrigo Cuevas, capable of filling the Liceu a few months ago, but who in this festival occupies the first hour of the program, usually reserved for small and new groups. That’s why the festival has the B in its name, a reference to the second side of the albums, the hidden one, that of artists like Baiuca, Cuevas’s colleague in this new folk thing who, this one, played at 11:20 p.m. to give the attendees the opportunity to learn new music instead of repeating yourself.

All this mattered little to the Asturian, who in the light of day performed his mix of folk and electronic music full of “great songs” on the Voll-Damm stage. Star show with tribute to Imperio Argentina (“The day I was born”) that brought together thousands of people in the early afternoon to toast with all of them, dance some dolls and make people dance to songs like Casares, Veneno o Pilgrimage of that Manual that yesterday he deployed again to put on a good one regardless of time or circumstances.

At the same time, Maria Hein inaugurated the Jägermusic stage dressed in yellow and supported by two dancers and a musician who, in addition to bases, played the guitar, trumpet or whatever was convenient. The soft and welcoming voice of the Mallorcan was the first of the complete list of young artists. His electronic pop was heard at the festival Son Son o Club; the litany of Loneliness, His skin turns me white for which the piano was accompanied, or Cor, unreleased love song that continues on the pop path to which it has transferred drillby Maria de la Pau Janer.

His replacement was Jimena Amarillo, another young voice of the festival (the oldest, like Guillem Gisbert or Santiago Motorizado, are barely over 40). The Valencian, an LGTBI+ reference, navigated between indie and rap with her guitar with the help of keyboards and drums in a performance where she claimed several times the female presence on stage between the slow cadences of her songs, such as love ticket o Cafelikothe hit of this introverted artist.

Cupido, the band from Barcelona Pimp Flaco brought together a good handful of followers of the band’s indie pop, many more than Guillem Gisbert, who succeeded him on the opposite stage to review his first solo album, Balla la masurca! with minimal arrangements to surrender to the quartet where he is accompanied by Jordi Casadesús, Glòria Manuel and Arnau Grabolosa. A continuous proposal with the work of Manel that helped broaden the musical variety, as Baiuca and his electrofolk with Galician roots did shortly after to continue the musical party, scheduled until the early hours of the morning.