The fans of Marshmello, Armin Van Buuren, Brian Cross, Don Diablo or Morten were waiting like rain in May for this Saturday night to arrive. The Barcelona Beach Festival was going to bring together the best of the world’s DJs next to the Sant Adrià de Besòs beach. There is a hunger for electronic music. The coronavirus has left fans orphaned of their favorite rhythms for two years.
The last edition of the Barcelona Beach Festival was held in 2019. Then the pandemic forced the closed sign to be hung up. This year the promoter, Live Nation, already had everything ready for the return. But the City Council of Sant Adrià de Besòs denied the license yesterday. A complicated bureaucratic plot has gotten in the way of the event and, if there is no last-minute solution, the festival will not be held in 2022 either.
The mayor of Sant Adrià de Besòs, Filo Cañete, explains that Live Nation “did not send the complete documentation until June 22” and that “that same day the City Council sent all the information to the Generalitat Fire Department so that they could process a report ” noting that there is no fire hazard on the fairgrounds.
“That report is mandatory and binding. Authorizing the celebration of the festival without having it would be a huge risk, because the license would be granted without guarantees that a hypothetical fire can be dealt with and that could lead to criminal responsibilities”, adds Cañete, after stressing that “the important thing is safety”.
But the Generalitat is not of the same opinion. Interior sources, on which the Firefighters depend, assure that Live Nation “provided all the documentation in February” and blame the mayor of Sant Adrià de Besòs for having sent the papers coinciding with the Sant Joan festival, “which is the day of the year when firefighters have the most work. According to the same sources – who believe that behind Cañete’s decision “an electoral strategy is hidden” – “the report cannot be prepared because the documentation has arrived outside the legal deadline to do so”.
The general director of Prevention, Fire Extinction and Salvage, Joan Delort, assured yesterday that the City Council can grant the license even in the absence of the report, since the conditions of the premises have not changed compared to previous years. But Cañete will not give his arm to twist: “There will be no license without the firefighters’ report, because neither I nor the City Council technicians can risk signing it.”
Pino Sagliocco, director of the Barcelona Beach Festival and president of the promoter Live Nation in Spain, does not hide his “surprise”. “We delivered all the documentation in January. On June 16 we asked the Town Hall if they needed anything else. On the 22nd, they asked us for two phone numbers of the organization. All this is a big bureaucratic problem and I do not lose hope that it will be solved, because the public is very eager and enthusiastic and there are people who come from abroad for this festival”, he affirms.
Live Nation has sold some 25,000 tickets for the event. Yesterday I was still dispatching tickets and kept the contracts with the DJs, who are already in Barcelona. Sagliocco assures that he will return the money if in the end the festival is not held, but he also states that, if that happens, “a judicial scenario and even a lawsuit could be opened.”
Three versions of a bureaucratic cocoa that has caused the cancellation of the electronic music festival. But Cañete, Interior and Sagliocco agree on one thing: if the event is not held, altercations can occur.
The mayor of Sant Adrià de Besòs contacted the Mossos, the Port of Barcelona and the Guardia Urbana of the Catalan capital yesterday to explain the situation to them, because “public disorders can occur and the Sant Adrià Local Police do not have the capacity to face them even if it assigned all its agents”.
From Interior they assure that “cancelling a festival of these characteristics just 24 hours before its celebration can cause a problem of public order”. And the promoter acknowledges that “there are many angry people, because they do not understand what is happening.”
The give and take between administrations may continue throughout today. Last night the cancellation of the Barcelona Beach Festival seemed like a fact, but the stage has already been raised, the artists are ready to step on it and the spectators kept buying tickets. Or the City Council gives in and gives the license without a fire report. O Interior agrees to write the controversial report. Or, for the third consecutive year, the festival will not be held.
