Loco

Located by the Mediterranean sea in Barcelona, start your summer in style at Primavera Sound, from the 27th -29th of May 2010. A festival like no other, it boasts six outdoor stages (some are literally located on the beach) and one of the biggest auditoriums in Europe. With events throughout Barcelona for the week surrounding the festival, this is more like a massive summer party than the usual festival.

Tickets for 2010’s event are already on sale and some great acts, from the Pixies, Wilco, Orbital, and Lee “Scratch” Perry are already signed up. And that’s just the ones I’ve heard of; what about The Bloody Beetroots, or Superchunk?! Who are these bands, and what musical delights have they got in store for our innocent little ears? There’s only one way to find out…

Getting There

Getting the train to Barcelona is straightforward and fun. There’s a few ways to do it, some involving a change in Spain, but we’ve detailed the most obvious route that involves a night-train direct from Paris. Taking the ‘Trenhotel’ from Paris Austerlitz means that you can travel directly to Barcelona, leaving Paris in the evening, and arriving at Barcelona the next morning fresh-faced and fancy-free.

The coach can be cheaper but they don’t run every day so you need to be more flexible. The price includes crossing the channel in a ferry, and is more comfortable that you’d think.

You can of course choose to make your trip to Sonar part of an extended break to France or different parts of Spain, and in this case you should buy an Inter-rail pass rather than a straight point-to-point return ticket.

Buying tickets:

The price of the ticket will depend on whether or not there are special ‘Premfares’ available, and if the cheapest Eurostar tickets are still available. If there are, you can do the whole trip for less than £160 (£60 for the Eurostar, £49.50 each way for the Paris-Barcelona night train).

* Check availability and book point-to-point tickets (including Eurostar) at Rail Europe

If there aren’t cheap point-to-point tickets left, then your best option is to pick a slightly different route and buy a rail-pass. The cheapest way to do it is to get a reclining seat rather than a full couchette on the night-train.

* Check alternative options using the Deutshce Bahn European rail timetable.
* Buy a 5-in-10 day Global rail-pass (you need a global one to get through France). It’s £125 if you’re under 26. This lets you travel for any five days within ten from the start date.

Book your inter-rail pass

* Once you’ve bought your rail-pass, contact Rail Europe to make night-train reservations (these are compulsory and cost around ¬£30 per night train).
* Buy Eurostar tickets. Your Inter-rail pass gets you a discount on Eurostar tickets, and on tickets from any UK station to London St. Pancras.

Things to note

If you choose the Inter-rail pass option, the main factor affecting the overall price of the journey is the Eurostar ticket. It doesn’t matter where you buy your ticket, it will be the same price everywhere, but each train has a certain number of cheap tickets and once they’re gone, that’s it. The cheapest you’ll get a return to Paris for is ¬£60 minus the discount that you’re eligible for with an Inter-rail pass.

Most night-train reservations are compulsory, but the cost differs, with the most direct trains (i.e. straight from Paris to Barcelona) having the highest fees. To save money, inquire about the possibility of not getting a couchette, and just spending a night in a seat.

Note that for night-train journeys that begin after 7pm, you only use up one day of your inter-rail pass (as long as you haven’t already made a journey using the pass on that day.

Take the coach (2009 details)

The coach is the cheapest option at £78 for a return (at the time of writing) that takes you all the way from London to Barcelona. However, the coaches don’t run every day, and so you need to depart from London a few days before the festival starts, and then stay on in Barcelona after it finishes. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing of course, but it means that accommodation costs could mount up. You could try a site like Couchsurfing – a great way to get know a city and its people, just make sure you return the favour!

You can get tickets through Eurolines. The earlier you book, the cheaper it is.

Images courtesy of alterna2, Wolfgang Straudt and wikimedia

Back to top