5K attend Barcelona concert amid pandemic after COVID-19 screenings

A Spanish rock group drew a crowd of roughly 5,000 people in Barcelona on Saturday in one of the signs of normalcy returning to the music and live entertainment world.

The Associated Press reported that the group “Love of Lesbian” played to thousands who completed day-of COVID-19 screenings and agreed to wear face masks during the concert. 

“It’s been a year and half since we last set foot [onstage] as a band,” singer Santi Balmes told the crowd, according to the AP. “This is so….some of the musicians are crying over here.”

“We were able to evade reality for a while,” one attendee, 40-year-old Jose Parejo, told the news service. “We were inside our small concert bubble. And we were even able to remember back in time when things like this one were normal. Things that nowadays aren’t that normal, sadly.”

Concertgoers were asked not to attend if they have certain risk factors such as heart disease that make COVID-19 infections more deadly. The concert was supported by local health officials, who cited data showing that rigorous pre-screening efforts as well as face mask usage were effective in preventing new infections from spreading at the concert.

“This is another small step toward being able to hold concerts and cultural events,” a local health expert involved in the guidelines’ creation told the AP.

Spain has seen its rate of new COVID-19 cases drop in recent weeks, and the country’s infection rate now sits at a few thousand per day after spiking significantly over the month of February.