Jovanotti's world-class sound makes Cruïlla dance

BarcelonaThe experience of some artists and the repertoires performed have made the difference in the sixteenth edition of the Cruïlla festival. The nostalgia card has won because Suede, Pixies, The Black Crowes and David Byrne have offered good concerts, some even extraordinary, and because the public has responded positively to the proposal. In total, Cruïlla 2026 has gathered 73,000 attendees, 9,000 fewer than last year, when a record of 82,000 was reached. But the decline is not explained by the, let's say, nostalgic days of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but because Wednesday, the day intended for the younger audience, has been less successful: Halsey, the headliner for Wednesday, only attracted 9,000 people, half of the 18,000 that Gracie Abrams had in 2025.

"We are not sure that on Wednesdays we are building a community," admitted the director of Cruïlla, Jordi Herreruela, at a press conference. According to him, the number of attendees may have more to do with the headliner, a circumstance that is not so decisive on the other days. Thursday, the Pixies day, despite being the best in the festival's history numerically, attracted 20,000 people (4,000 more than in 2025); Friday, with David Byrne as the main draw, 21,000 (last year there were 23,000), and Saturday, with concerts by Jovanotti, Jon Batiste, and La Ludwig Band, 23,000 (2,000 fewer than in 2025).

In any case, Cruïlla remains within the parameters consolidated in recent years, also regarding the origin of the audience. According to data provided by Herreruela, "95% of the Cruïlla audience" is Catalan: 50% from the city of Barcelona; 25-30% from the metropolitan triangle delimited by Mataró, Manresa, and Sitges, and 20% from the rest of Catalonia. "It is possible to hold a major event in Barcelona aimed at the local audience, and this includes using Catalan. Not all of them have to be aimed at an international audience," assures Herreruela. The data on the average age show an average of between 35 and 45 years, but with nuances. On Wednesday, the audience was much younger, and on Thursday, more veteran, in line with the artistic programming.

For Herreruela, the 2026 edition fulfills the slogan "Cruïlla is home." "The festival generates a space of trust. I believe we got it right because it's a phrase that describes the spirit of what we want to be, it defines us," he explains. Regarding the continuity of Cruïlla at Parc del Fòrum, there is no doubt: "We are negotiating with BSM [Barcelona de Serveis Municipals] the agreement for four more years. We do not expect any difficulty. In fact, we are already working on the artistic programming for 2027," says Herreruela.

Els Pets, Jovanotti and Jon Batiste

Els Pets, in sextet formation, opened the Occident stage on Saturday with Three, from the album Fràgil, a title that contradicts the solidity they showed in the concert. “Welcome to the session of afternoon drink!” exclaimed Lluís Gavaldà before singing with the audience Life is beautiful but complicated. All the musicians in blazers, like their British pop idols, and Gavaldà even with a tie, because heat is also fought with attitude. “We look good, don't we?”, he asked, somewhere between irony and self-help. The elegance suited the tone of the concert perfectly, a far from obvious journey through a magnificent songbook defended with attention to detail and rewarded by an attentive and devoted audience, who in This damn weather deployed a choreography with straw hats sponsored by the West that the festival distributes to protect themselves from the sun. The repertoire was impeccable: Núria, Better, Evening, The small area, For, Blu tack, the little rumba Second dish (sung by Joan Reig), So many things to do, Shorts and scraped knees, during which he asked for a vano from some spectators and then went down to sing it among the audience... All in all, a great concert both on and off stage. Els Pets, 40 years old, and may they last. What a wonderful way to grow old.

In the central hours of Saturday, Jovanotti was treading the Estrella Damm stage and Jon Batiste the Vueling. The Italian came with a band of fourteen musicians to amplify the global sound, with touches of hip-hop, fusion rock, a trumpet eager for jazz, and an eminently festive spirit. "Cruïlla Family!", he shouted to spur on an audience predisposed to the party, who reacted with more enthusiasm when Jovanotti, an artist very much in tune with the Cruïlla spirit, proposed songs like Positive thinking (in a funk frenzy), Oceanic (trying to make a virtue of dispersion), The navel of the world (his best song) and the version by The skinny one by Jarabe de Palo, before which he had a few words to remember Pau Donés. Among the audience in the front rows, quite a few Italians, by the way.

The North American Jon Batiste, winner of eight Grammy Awards and well-known in the United States for having been the leader of the band on the program Late show with Stephen Colbert from 2015 to 2022, brought his mix of soul, blues, and jazz to Cruïlla. He managed to get the audience to catch the soul power of New Orleans and turn the Vueling stage into a dance floor with hands raised to the sky. Besides singing, Batiste demonstrated his talents as a multi-instrumentalist, playing the guitar, piano, saxophone, and melodica. The powerful band accompanying him did not lag behind. One of the highlights was the version of Mais que nada, by Jorge Ben, to which he gave Afro-Caribbean touches with the piano. He also surprised with an exclusively musical medley in which he mixed My favourite things, from The Sound of Music, with Tom’s diner by Suzanne Vega, among other songs.

A 10 for the audience, and for La Ludwig Band

Jordi Herreruela said he was particularly satisfied with the Cruïlla poster because it managed to draw large crowds to all stages even when performances overlapped. This happened with Jovanotti and Jon Batiste, and with Jon Batiste himself and Rigoberta Bandini, who drew a crowd at Vueling. The Barcelona-based artist performed a version of the Jesucrista Superstar tour concerts: adapted to the festival format and also to pregnancy. In a repertoire with practically all relevant material, Rigoberta Bandini had the unconditional support of a particularly active and generous audience. A 10, like the one that overflowed the Vallformosa stage during La Ludwig Band's performance.

Attending a La Ludwig Band concert continues to be a very rewarding experience, with the added bonus that the Barcelona band has to respond to an increasingly large audience. Disc by disc they are gathering more followers, and the album Pel barri es comenta (2026) has added a good handful. The responsibility doesn't seem to affect the sextet, which maintains its joy and freshness, its drive and agility to improvise. That feeling of being on the verge of cataclysm from the early years has gone down in history, but for now it's hard to find live shows that are so solid, exciting, and entertaining at the same time. At Cruïlla they offered an hour and a half full of reasons to praise them. For example, the way they expand On t'has ficat aquesta nit? and grow Avui hem quedat a les quatre, in which they compensate for the minor key of the original with an impetuous crescendo. Or their ability to manage the audience's euphoria, both in repertoire classics like S'ha mort l'home més vell d'Espolla and in recent pieces like Millor amb ell, in which the music elevates an self-indulgent lyric to catharsis.

Quim Carandell, the impossible version of an extroverted Bob Dylan, sang with the expressiveness and technique of his best days. And the audience sang all the songs, even a Creure with sound problems that affected Carandell's microphone. It was a pleasure to see so many people involved in the concert, broadening the impact of El meu amor se n'ha anat de vacances, making it their own Xavier, el tècnic de so and respecting the intimacy of the first part of D'un concert de la Mushka. In return, La Ludwig Band offered them another memorable concert with a magnificent display of instrumental complicity on stage. The encore, although a bit rushed, still offered two special moments: a very good performance of Enganyar-te, from the latest album, and another more frenetic one of Desembre, a track from the self-titled 2022 EP. As they said goodbye, Black Sabbath's Paranoid played through the speakers. One more reason to love them.