Mad Cool was THE NEW MUSIC EVENT, and I had been expecting the festival since their first edition last year. I chose to go since all my friends were going, and it happens in my home town. An urban Festival in Madrid, with an ambitious international line-up that tries to mimic the Primavera Sound success in Barcelona.
Although the weather in July in Spain is sunny and warm, the weather forecast announced electrical storms and shower rains, and so it was. Even flights were delayed due to safety concerns. I figured I brought the cloud myself from the UK so that I could unbiasedly compare UK and Spanish summer festivals.
Mad Cool had five stages – one indoor with limited capacity and four stages outdoors surrounded by artificial grass.
As we all know, the festival experience changes with the concerts you pick, but the sense of greatness of Mad Cool arrives just by landing to the esplanade, and seeing the massive spinning wheel.
On the first day, even though the rain completely wet the grass, the storm let up with The Lumineers (Ho Hey), and we were able to enjoy the festival in full. A succession of great bands performed: Foals (My Number) with their perfect festival performance, Foo Fighters filling Mad Cool, Belle and Sebastian filling our hearts (I’m a Cuckoo, The Boy with the Arab Strap), and Trentemøller and Boys Noize forcing us to move our feet.
On the second day, Spoon (Hot Thoughts) warmed us up for the rest of the night, and Alt-J (Breezeblocks) demonstrated the quality of the festival’s line-up, but unfortunately, it did not prepare us for what was about to come. Right after the concert, an acrobatic performance ended up with Pedro Aunión falling from a cage suspended above the crowd. There were many people watching, there was confusion, and no confirmation of the status of the artist at any point. Only a 30 min delay on the schedule.
The show went on with Green Day, who weren’t notified about the incident. Their concert was a 2h show minutiously designed to please their fans. Treé Cool opened the show dressed up like a bunny. They brought public on the stage, Billie Joe Armstrong gave his famous Blue guitar to a fan – replica of the one his father gave to him. Billie interacted a lot with the audience too: he wore a Trump mask, and a Spanish flag. They played all the expected songs, like When I Come Around for my pleasure.
By then, we learned that Pedro had passed away. Many people left, some were really angry with the Mad Cool organisers, and some of us just continued.
On the third day, the festival was completely packed, despite some people being really sad for the unfortunate incident. At 20h, Purple rain sounded all throughout the place, and the screens showed a condolence message.
Wilco sounded pure and neat, and Belako sounded very energetic. People loved Manic Street Preachers, Kings of Leon and Moderat. To me, the best concert of the whole festival was M.I.A. The Sri-Lankan artist (and political activist) became a true goddess on stage, with a great stage, and nice dancers. I learnt about her with her first album -that I probably know by heart. She played Pull up the people, Bucky done gone, Galang, Bamboo Banga, 20 Dollar, Borders. One of the most magical moments was when we distinguished in Fly Pirates that she had introduced a sample that said Pedro over and over again as a homage to him. The concert ended up with her most famous single Paper planes, that appeared in Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack.
This music fest has challenged my willingness to go to concerts under the rain, and it has raised plenty of ethical questions on whether we should have continued or stopped the festival. Despite all the incidents that have happened in the Mad Cool 2017 edition, the fact that I have been able to enjoy the music surrounded by some of my best friends will always be a great success. The time of my life.
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MadCool has come and passed
The best of times can never last
Wake me up when MadCool returns
Sun and rain on plastic grass
These two years have gone so fast
Wake me up when MadCool returns
Gracias Guille A.
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Buscad al unicornio!
Stereo Giraffe 