5,000 people have just attended the concert without social distancing in an attempt to safely protest personal events
The concert may be a response to the cessation of social distancing.
Barcelona has just given the world an idea of what post-pandemic life might look like.
On Saturday, 5,000 fans of the year gathered at the Palau Sant Jordi concert hall in Barcelona to watch Love of Lesbian play the set. To get there, fans had to take a coronavirus test the same day and wear a medical face mask provided by the concert organizers during the show.
“It’s been a year and a half since we last participated in the script as a band,” singer Santi Balmes told the crowd between songs, according to The Guardian.
The concert in Barcelona, supported by local authorities and experts from the AIDS and Infectious Diseases Foundation, is part of a larger effort to test health and safety measures at festivals and gatherings across Europe in the run-up to the summer season. As reported by The New York Times, similar concerts have already taken place in other countries, and next month the UK plans to conduct its own tests.
If you do not pay attention to the masks, the picture of the event in Barcelona could really look as if they were from days long past, when the term “social distancing” meant absolutely nothing.
However, Ventura Barba, executive director of the Sonar Festival and one of the organizers of the events in Barcelona, told The New York Times that although the concert was “a small but important step towards normalcy”, it was by no means the answer to all our questions and problems.
This is because, as Barba explained, this concert was a “non-commercial project” and would be successful if it paid off because of the cost of testing and disguise.
Barba said ticket sales accounted for only 36% of the concert’s budget, which was about 250,000 euros (about $ 294,000). Another 30% were covered by public authorities so that they could check the effectiveness of security measures, 24% – from private sponsors and 10% – from Barba and other promoters.
As for follow-up, AFP said all concert goers would stay in touch with officials who would monitor any active COVID-19 outbreaks to make sure testing, masking and temperature checks were sufficient. Although this may seem like a nightmare scenario, the AIDS and Infectious Diseases Foundation organized a smaller concert in December with 500 people using the same methods, without a single coronavirus infection. Dr Josep Maria Libre told AFP they expected the same from the event.
“We expect it to be completely safe,” he said. “Over the next 14 days, we’ll see how many of the audience test positive for Covid, and let you know.”