BARCELONA (Reuters) – One of Barcelona’s top music venues will hold a concert for 5,000 people later this month after no COVID-19 cases were reported at a pilot project using same-day testing.
No social distancing will be required at the show, headlined by Spanish indie band Love of Lesbian, and concert-goers will be able to buy drinks, said organizer Festivals per la Cultura Segura, whose name translates as Festivals for Safe Culture.
To avoid a potential super-spreading event, attendees must present a negative COVID-19 antigen test taken the same day, and wear FFP2 masks. The arena will be divided in zones of fewer than 1,800 people.
The gig, scheduled for March 27 in Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi, will serve as a pilot to establish “a new protocol for holding events in the current context,” the company said in a statement.
Organisers decided to go ahead with the event after receiving positive results from a scientifically monitored concert of two DJ sets and two live performances last December.
Around 1,000 people following similar mask and testing protocols attended the five-hour show at Barcelona’s Apolo concert hall, with half allowed inside the venue.
All the attendees were tested eight days later and none who were inside the venue had caught the virus.
The December concert and testing were supervised by a local university and the results have been published in a medical journal.
If successful, the Love of Lesbian gig could provide a route to recovery for the ravaged live music industry after a year of widespread closures of venues and bans on live performances.
(Reporting by Joan Faus and Inti Landauro. Editing by Nathan Allen and Mark Potter)
