Photo Credit: Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images

Barcelona's test concert attended by 5,000 participants

Around 5,000 people attended a concert in Barcelona after receiving negative results in same-day Covid testing. Spanish authorities let the concert, featuring band Love of Lesbian, go ahead as part of a pilot. Fans took a test earlier in the day and did not have to keep physically apart but they still wore masks.

In December, Spain already hosted a similar concert. The Covid-19 PRIMACOV concert study conducted in Barcelona on December 12th at the renowned Catalan venue Sala Apolo proved to be a complete success with no participants testing positive for Covid-19. The show organised by the AIDS and Infectious Diseases Foundation, the Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol and funded by the gigantic festival Primavera Sound, demonstrated to the local authorities as well as festival-goers that safe events can be organised in 2021.

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Photo Credit: Primavera Sound

The concert was one of the largest gatherings in Europe in more than a year since the pandemic began. The gig was held as part of a research project looking at the viability of holding Covid-secure mass events following rapid-testing of guests.

The Spanish project follows a similar experiment in the Netherlands when fans attended a two-day music festival after showing proof of a negative Covid test. The Dutch test events, organised under the umbrella of ‘Back to Live’, included a concert and a dance event at Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam and two open-air festivals at the Lowlands and Defqon Biddinghuizen festival site, all of which were organised by Mojo and ID&T.

In Barcelona, ticket-holders were only permitted to enter the stadium once a negative result code was sent to their phones. Temperatures and IDs were checked at the door. Staff from a local hospital and event promoters teamed up to carry out rapid testing in booths within tents at three local venues.

barcelona_concert
Photo Credit: Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images

The pandemic has devastated the live music industry along with many other cultural activities. The European music industry lost 76% of its income in 2020, according to a study by Spain’s Music Federation.


Article adapted from BBC (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56556451)

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