TMB staff controlling access to stations on Metro Line 4 to avoid crowding on platforms and in corridors. Crowds of very young people checking their mobile maps at the Llacuna metro exit to find the shortest route to Bogatell beach and wondering whether to go around the Poblenou cemetery to the right or the left. Vendors selling unregulated beer who look like assistants for a cycling team. Police checkpoints searching for knives. Running around trying to stay close to the stage. Parents realizing they have no business being in the rites of passage into adolescence. Security officers who can't help but follow the rhythm of the music. The mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, and people with more or less famous or powerful credentials moving around trays of food in the reserved area of ​​Estrella Damm next to the stage. Very young people checking the time to know when they'll have to leave in order to be on time for the concerts on Avenida Reina Cristina. Hungry journalists, who could be the grandparents of these same young people, are struggling to explain why a 21-year-old artist is capable of gathering a crowd on the beach on a humid night.

"She's the big international star of our house. Rosalía doesn't set Lia Kali's ceiling," said the director of Cruïlla, Jordi Herreruela, a few weeks ago during the presentation of the 2025 edition of the festival. Julia Isern (Barcelona, ​​1997), better known as Lia Kali, was unaware of this praise. "Wow! I had no idea," she exclaims. "Well, I'm so grateful that this man has so much faith in my project." Herreruela's enthusiasm is typical when she defends the artists she programs, but it's also true that the singer from the Teixonera neighborhood broke many glass ceilings with her album Against all odds (2023). Rapping with soulful lyrics and urban war paintings that Amy Winehouse once covered, Lia Kali has had to come to terms with two years of success, millions of Spotify streams, and an international tour. Now she's back with the album Kaelis (2025), also released on the Manresa-based label Propaganda por el Hecho! And before sharing the bill with Gracie Abrams on the first night of Cruïlla on July 9, Lia Kali will perform at the Cartuja Center in Seville and the Movistar Arena in Madrid (formerly WiZink), give concerts in London, Berlin, Hamburg, Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile, and has already sold out two shows at 2 y 2 in Barcelona.