BARCELONA, March 26, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Spain’s Sonar electronic and dance music festival has been cancelled for a second year because of the coronavirus pandemic, organisers of the Barcelona-based event said Thursday.
Spain has been hard-hit, recording over 74,000 Covid-19 deaths from more than 3.2 million cases.
“The case numbers, mobility restrictions, and the lack of applicable legislation for the organisation of large events have made the celebration of the festival in the conditions required unviable,” they said in a statement.
The festival was scheduled to take place June 15-18. The 2020 edition, whose headliners included British electronic music duo The Chemical Brothers and Swedish DJ Eric Prydz, had also been called off.
Tickets for both events can be rolled over to 2022 or ticket holders can request a refund.
Sonar along with another major Barcelona-based international music festival, Primavera Sound, are jointly holding a clinical trial which seeks to prove that it is possible to organise concerts safely despite the pandemic.
They will stage a concert on Saturday in Barcelona with 5,000 people who will have to wear high-protection FFP2 face masks and undergo a coronavirus test before entering.
Primavera Sound has also called off this year’s even again like Britain’s Glastonbury Festival, one of the world’s largest music festivals.