Corona perspective for culture? Test concert in Spain could be a role model

A test run for the culture took place in Spain, now the results of the concert with 5000 people are clear - they give hope.

A month ago a test concert took place in Barcelona, ​​which provided for now unfamiliar pictures: The almost 5,000 music fans were crowded together in the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, ​​the minimum distance was nil.

In order to make the concert a successful example, the organizers had implemented other security measures.

Corona test concert: With masks, test concept and ventilation system

Anyone who wanted to listen to the music of the indie rock band "Love of Lesbian" had to submit a negative daily antigen test, and there was a strict obligation to wear FFP2 masks.

In addition, a particularly powerful ventilation system was installed in the concert hall.

The major event was organized by several festivals, music organizers and the “Germans Trias i Pujol de Badalona” hospital, at which the participating doctor Josep Maria Llibre also works.

At a press conference, Llibre announced the result of the experiment: According to him, there is “no sign” that people were infected with the corona virus at the major event.

Corona concert in Barcelona: organizers rate results as success

Two weeks after the concert, six of the 4600 spectators tested positive for Covid-19, and in four of the six cases, Llibre is sure that the transmission did not take place during the concert. His colleague, the virologist Boris Revollo, added that in the two unresolved cases he could not categorically rule out an infection during the concert, but there was a "very high probability" that they did not take place there. There is one shortcoming of the experiment, however: the research team had no information on how many of the concert-goers actually had themselves tested for corona in the two weeks after the concert - further infections without symptoms could therefore have occurred unnoticed under the radar.

Despite this gap, the concert and the results that have now been published are to be seen as a hope for the culture industry: "With optimized ventilation, antigen tests and the wearing of masks, you can guarantee a safe space," says Josep Maria Llibre. In fact, the event attracted a lot of international attention: “The world had its eyes on us, a lot of people asked us how we did it,” said Angels Ponsa, the Catalan regional government's cultural representative. Barcelona is proud of the project that has so far experimented with the largest audience numbers since the beginning of the pandemic - Germany and the Netherlands had started test runs in the past with 1,500 and 1,300 people.