After being devastatingly hit by the coronavirus outbreak, Spain is almost ready to start the process of relaxing the lockdown. This situation will arrive thanks to a multi-staged ‘plan’ that will move relatively swiftly.
The Spanish government has avoided speaking directly about summer festivals and massive events. Two major music events in Spain like Dreambeach Villaricos or Medusa Sunbeach shared press notes explaining the situation. Also we have Ultra Beach Costa del Sol scheduled for early June. These festivals, just like many others in Spain are worried and deeply disappointed with the government, as it does not share clear instructions regarding these celebrations.
Although the health and culture ministers have not stated anything yet about these festivals, they shared some guidelines regarding “cultural events”. This is the information about them during the 4 phases of the process of going back to the “new normality”
The Multi-Staged Plan
The multi-staged plan will vary in each autonomous community. If things go as planned, the outdoor areas of restaurants and bars allowed to open at 50 per cent capacity from May 11. At this Stage 1, indoor venues which have a 90+ person capacity could open for a third of their capacity. In addition, open-air events may host up to 200 people if they keep the 2 meters distance. The Canary and Balearic Islands and already at Stage 1.
Phase 2 will start around May 25, allowing indoor venues to hold a third of their capacity. Always with a maximum of 50 people. The allowance of seated outdoor events could climb up to 400 people. Stage 3 could begin around June 8. The final phase of the lockdown easing will supposedly allow indoor venues to operate at 1/3 of their capacity with a limit of 80 people. Besides, 800 people may attend to seated outdoor events. All these stages are subject to change. This situation is unclear since the current government usually modifies the conditions before entering each of the phases
The Promoters, at Stake
Although this plan sounds better than the total lockdown that was in place, the Spanish music events industry will suffer much more than other European countries, which took measures way quicker than Spain.
This is not good news because most of the promoters will not be able to do their events. In reality, these capacity reductions cannot be applied, because the events were planned with all expenses and income already calculated before the state of alarm was implemented. The government just refer to concerts of 800 spectators maximum. The drop of more than 95% in ticket sales in the last two months makes these measures even more unviable
Spanish Promoters Association
Promoters and party-goers are still waiting for the final guidelines regarding summer festivals. Sadly, everything points out that they will be the same as in other European countries. The only difference is the months of delay and uncertainty for attendees and promoters.