A look at the audience experience of a physical distanced gig by the Catalan band Doctor Prats in Barcelona.
The day is Friday 10th July and the sun is just starting to set as almost 500 people pack into the Anell Olimpic in Barcelona, a location known for its sports facilities and indoor music venues, including Palau Sant Jordi and Club Sant Jordi. Today an open air space has been set up with a temporary stage and seating for 800 audience members as part of the Cruïlla XXS series of physically distanced concerts, the first
Barcelona has seen since lockdown ended in June.
With everything going on it would be easy to be worried about your safety when attending such an event, or wondering how the experience will be affected by the physical distancing measures, but the atmosphere is one of excitement and anticipation. Most people sitting in their assigned seats are happily chatting to the people they came with. At 9:03 the band walk onto the stage with a loud cheer from the audience. Doctor Prats, a 7 piece Catalan band whose signature sound is a fusion of Ska and Eletronica, has the audience swaying in their seats from the first note. “We missed you guys,” the trumpet player and singer Guillem Boltó proclaims to the audience and you could really tell he meant it.
Although it starts off as a seated gig, over the first couple of songs more and more people stand up to dance within their particular group. The audience does, more or less, stay close to their chairs, arranged according to 1 metre distancing between the groups which arrive together. Almost everyone knows the words and sings along, creating a great atmosphere. The feeling is of being far enough away from the other parties to feel safe, but somehow also close enough to maintain a sense of sharing a joint experience, something live music is known for.
The band also seem to feed off this atmosphere, being just as lively on stage as they always are - no on stage distancing measures in evidence. The set contains fast paced hits and slower melodies, with the standout moment being “La Recepta”, a synth dance track where, as always, the audience is encouraged to crouch down on the floor and jump up on command - an ask common at concerts but apparently difficult to pull off by an audience that has barely been allowed to leave their homes for anything but work for 4 months.
They finish their set with an emotional “Al Final Tot Anirà Bé” a ballad about everything working out in the end that has become a beacon of hope for some during the Covid crisis. A perfect way to end this event, one that was maybe not exactly what the audience was used to, but all involved seemed very happy was happening all the same.
Written and photographed by Alexa Davyd, 2020