5,000 music fans in Barcelona rock out at experimental concert after COVID antigen tests
Dr. Josep Llibre says the crowd, which sang, danced, and hugged, was ‘magic’
Joining an indoor crowd of thousands of people to dance, sing and listen to music might sound like a distant dream at this point in the pandemic.
But for a select group of Spanish music fans, it was their Saturday night.
The government-sanctioned concert in Barcelona was something of an experiment, says Dr. Josep Llibre, an infectious diseases physician who helped develop the plan for the event.
The goal? To see if thousands of people can safely gather together for large events if they're screened carefully enough.
"It's the first time ever in the world that we applied [this] strategy in a big venue — 5,000 people," he said.
Llibre told As It Happens guest host Peter Armstrong that they pulled it off by having every participant take an antigen test the morning of, with their results downloaded automatically to an app on their phones.
It's a strategy he says had already been tested in the city, with a smaller concert back in December.
This time around, just six people tested positive for having a "high viral load" of COVID-19 proteins, and were barred from attending the concert, and had their ticket costs refunded.
Everyone else, who Llibre says were all between the ages of 18 and 65 and had no serious health conditions, headed in to watch the Spanish band Love of Lesbian.
"I would say it was magic: 5,000 people dancing and singing and hugging themselves with no physical distance. It was amazing," he said.
Queremos dar las GRACIAS más sinceras por todos los mensajes que estamos recibiendo.Actuar en el <a href="https://twitter.com/PalauSantJordi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@palausantjordi</a> anoche ha sido único. Es el momento de descansar para salir con fuerza hacia un Viaje Epico Hacia la Nada.<br>Tenemos muchas ganas.Salud y amor <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/lolsantjordi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#lolsantjordi</a><br>📸 Ivan Gil <a href="https://t.co/KfBb7W1cUk">pic.twitter.com/KfBb7W1cUk</a>
—@loveoflesbianAntigen tests detect viral proteins rather than genetic material, which is what lab-based PCR tests look for.
This means they tend to detect only infectious virus, rather than genetic material that can linger after an infection — providing a snapshot of whether someone is actively infectious now, rather than if they ever were.
In November, a doctor from the Harvard School of Public Health told CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks that high-quality antigen tests are more than 95-per-cent effective at detecting infectious virus.
"The possibility that we missed someone with COVID?... That's possible. But [someone] with a high viral load, that's very, very unlikely," said Llibre.
To make things safer, concert-goers also wore masks, and organizers used crowd-control measures to prevent queues at coat check or the bar.
"The group was perfect. The behaviour of the people was very, very good," he said.
Now, with the concert over, the experiment continues.
"In two weeks, we are going to know how many participants have been diagnosed of COVID. And we will compare that rate with a background population with the same age, during the same week and in the same city to prove there were no increased rates," said Llibre.
Other countries and cities have taken note, hoping to hold similar events in the near future.
"They are going to do the same in Paris with a bit more than 7,000 participants," he said. "The same is being done in the Netherlands and in Denmark."
Llibre said that even though the strategy should work for concerts and events, it hopefully won't be needed for long, thanks to more and more people getting their COVID-19 vaccines.
Written by Kate McGillivray. Interview producer by Katie Geleff.
