Itinerary 9 Days in Barcelona Week of Primavera Sound

Your plan works it looks like you did research and based your itinerary on your priority of interests.
Barcelona is a great walking city but consider you will take subway/metro also as needed.
you will have no problem making the concerts

I agree with Jazz that while you can certainly walk to the places in Barcelona you want to see, don't overlook the excellent metro system. A single ride is €2.20, but a 10 trip ticket is only €10.20.

Girona is very nice (and I've never even seen Game of Thrones!), so I'd definitely keep it in your trip.

Close to La Sagrada Familia is Sant Pau, the old hospital designed by Domènech i Montaner, who also designed the Palau de Musica Catalana. It's well worth seeing, and as a bonus isn't nearly as crowded as the Gaudi sights.

For general sightseeing convenience, I don't think there's a better area than Placa Catalunya.

Parc Guell will be pushing your 1-hour limit (depending on exactly where you're staying), and the last bit is significantly uphill. You might want to grab a bus (Metro stations are downhill from the park and not very close) on the way to the park then enjoy a leisurely walk back down toward city center.

Placa d'Espanya, from which you'll catch the train to Montserrat, is about 1-1/2 miles from Pl Catalunya.

I'm not sure a half-day is enough for Montserrat. The train itself is about an hour each way, then you need additional transportation to get up to the monastery. Some people like to take walks while there.

Barcelona is fabulous but is uncommonly challenging for visitors because so many of the key sights are subject to extremely long ticket lines. It will not work well just to show up at the following places:

Camp Nou (soccer thing--I believe it sells out early)
Picasso Museum (can be an absolute zoo; brace yourself)
La Sagrada Familia (best if you can schedule it first thing one morning)
Parc Guell (ditto, but it's outdoors so timing is not as important as at LSF)
Casa Mila and Casa Batllo (both likely to be very crowded)
Palau de la Musica Catalana (requires a tour, offered frequently in English)

It's not just that you need to buy those tickets ahead of time (not necessarily before you go to Barcelona, except probably for Camp Nou); you have to estimate how much time you'll need at the first sight of the day in order to figure out when to book the second one. You are very fortunate that you have a lot of time in Barcelona; that will help.

Girona is great; do not cut it! The historic district is very atmospheric, and it's fun to walk on the wall. Both of the two historic cathedrals have English-language audio guides, and the local art museum is very good.

I'd rather spend all the time in Barcelona/Girona rather than going to Valencia (which I admit I haven't yet seen), but if Valencia is definite, you may want to pre-purchase your train ticket, You can take a look at rail fares and schedules for May on the Renfe website. Your dates are not showing up yet. Early-purchase fares can be very reasonable, but the price tends to rise as the travel date approaches. The cheap tickets, however, are non-refundable/non-changeable. In Spain you often save money by buying a round-trip ticket rather than two single tickets.

The same situation applies to the fast trains to Girona, by the way, though for Girona you have the option of a cheaper/slower train, whose fare is always the same.

I spent more time in Barcelona than you're going to, and I also like to walk a lot. I bought a T10 (card for ten rides on public transportation) and only used about half of it, so I can't say for sure that you'll save money by doing that rather than buying individual tickets.

Thank you all for the wonderful feedback, it’s very much appreciated! I might shift Montserrat to a full day, so I’m not rushing back to Barcelona for the shows that evening. A hike earlier in the day and wine tasting to close things out might be nice.

Valencia was on a lot of top 10 lists for cities in Spain, so while nothing is set in stone with that, I figured it’d be worth spending one evening. I might consider switching it out for a couple days in Girona/Costa Brava.

I’ll definitely use the metro to get to Parc Del Forum (where Primavera is hosted), but it looks like most everything else is 20-30 minute walk from one spot to the other. I guess we’ll see how my feet are doing after the first couple days.

I spent some nights in Girona and was glad I had. It is a good base for day-trips to Figueres (extremely quirky Dali House and Museum), Cadaques (beautiful former fishing village, all white-washed buildings and bougainvillea--at least in the summertime--and the bus ride from Figueres is very scenic) and Besalu (fortified bridge). There are of course other accessible beach towns besides Cadaques, but I'm not a beach person.

Girona looks like a beautiful city, so I'll be keeping that on the schedule, so it's just a matter of deciding whether to add a second day or keeping the overnight in Valencia. I was able to shuffle things around to get in full day of hiking at Montserrat, which looks like a breathtaking view and a good change of pace from the city.

A little juggling, some additions ...

May 28 Monday
Arrive 8:30 AM
Las Ramblas
Boqueria market/lunch
Gothic Quarter
Cathedral de Barcelona

May 29 Tuesday
Day Trip to Girona
Passeig de la Muralla
Jewish Quarter

May 30 Wednesday
1/2 Day to Montserrat
5 PM Spiritualized Concert
Belle and Sebastian

May 31 Thursday
Montjuic Castle
Jardins de Miramar
MNAC or Miro Foundation
7 PM Primavera Sound
Bjork/Nick Cave

June 1 Friday
Palau de la Musica Catalana
Picasso Museum
Basilica Santa Maria del Mar
7 PM Primavera Sound
The National

June 2 Saturday
Passeig de Gracia
Casa Mila
Casa
7 PM Primavera Sound
Arctic Monkeys/Lorde

June 3 Sunday
La Sagrada Familia
Hospital Sant Pau
Park Guell

June 4 Monday
Overnight trip to Valencia

June 5 Tuesday
Return to Barcelona

June 6 Wednesday
Return Flight 10 AM

Your Girona and Montserrat ideas are perfectly fine. Leave them as is.

“Is it realistic to walk to all these locations from Place de Catalunya?“

Yes, except you will want Metro from Passseig de Gracia ...
Line 2 (Purple) to Sagrada Familia
Line 2 (Purple) to Parallel for Montjuic
Line 3 (Green) to Lesseps for Park Guell
Line 3 (Green) to Sants Estacio for Valencia & Girona trains
Line 4 (Yellow) to El Maresme Forum for Primavera Sound

As well as from Catalunya / Urquinaona ...
Line 1 (Red) to Espanya for Montserrat train

To avoid accumulated exhaustion I would be setting a 2am curfew and an 8:30am wake up call to have you out sightseeing by 10am.
ps. Jealous of Bjork + Nick Cave

You've all been awesome! Thanks for the tips and having those metro lines will definitely come in handy. I'll probably spend a full second day in Valencia and return back that evening, switch Montserrat to a full day Sunday June 3 to allow for a bit of hiking and that still leaves 5 days in Barcelona (though those days will be cut short by the festival, but should still allow for a solid 5 hours).