Trial music concert in Barcelona with 5,000 attendees hailed a success

Medical supervisor Dr Josep Maria Llibre said only six cases of Covid-19 were detected among 5,000 attendees two weeks after the show.

By Saim Kurubas

Apr 27, 2021

People wearing protective masks attend a concert of "Love of Lesbian" at the Palau Sant Jordi, the first massive concert since the beginning of the coronavirus disease pandemic in Barcelona, Spain, on March 27, 2021. / Reuters

A trial concert in Barcelona where 5,000 people took rapid Covid-19 tests and crammed into a venue without social distancing has not driven up infections, organisers said, giving hope to the moribund live-music sector.

Two weeks after the show by a Catalan indie band, just six cases of coronavirus were detected among attendees, medical supervisor Dr Josep Maria Llibre told a news conference on Tuesday.

That is equivalent to around half the infection rate among Barcelona's general population as measured over the past two weeks, said Llibre, an internal medicine specialist at the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital.

"This has not been a super-spreading event," he said, and there were no signs that the six infections had occurred at the venue.

"These are very reassuring data and we believe that can be helpful in opening cultural activities everywhere in the world," Llibre said.

Negative test result at the entrance

On the day of the show, concert-goers had to take a test at one of three locations in the city and demonstrate a negative result before being allowed into the Palau Sant Jordi arena.

Attendees received their results in 10 to 15 minutes via an app on their phones.

The test and a mask were included in the ticket price.

After the concert doctors called up attendees to ask if they had symptoms or had tested positive.

They also cross-referenced attendees' data with health department data, in accordance with disclaimers signed before the concert.