Sparks of hope for 2021

2020 ends as the worst year for live music on record, not even the biggest and bloodiest wars have been as effective as cutting through the sound of live music around the world at the same time. For this reason, many people place great hopes in 2021, as if a new return to the Sun starting from a point in space x, y, z, chosen by simple convention, should mean a drastic change in the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic, as if the fresh breeze of the beginnings push the stench of the waste of a disastrous year with its new perfume. A desire that vaccines finish the damn virus, with good reason, although until the end of the summer of 2021 it will not reach the majority of the population -who so wishes- thanks to a formidable logistical deployment and, in this way, attain the revered herd immunity, the moment when everything could go back to the way it was before.

It is an idea that unconsciously relaxes the reader's jaw, thinking that this is over, that we are toasting not only for the New Year but for the end of this nightmare, that this is almost there, consciously leaving aside now that the great hopes and fireworks really are for 2022 and that for next year we will have to settle for the sparks from the sparklers that make the children happy. However, as they say, now life comes and breaks all your plans or, as discussed on social media, if you really want 2021 to arrive, think that 2020 had two normal months. The signs that indicate what 2021 will be like for live music have already been manifested and the omens proclaim that the trend of recent months will continue, that is, it will be quite gray and hopes will gradually take shape. Have you seen many music festival announcements for summer 2021? Well I'll tell you that the only thing I've seen was the Roskilde who just confirmed Kendrick Lamar.

I do not want to be the jonx that eliminates the possibility of massive music festivals or large international tours by 2021 but it is highly unlikely that these events, if they take place, will be as they had been before March 2020 even though all attendees are vaccinated, also taking into account the great news of the result of the study of Primavera Sound and the Trias i Pujol Hospital that disconnects attendance at a concert with Covid-19 infections. The polarization of opinions promoted by social media, media that seek 'clickbait', politicians who only look at polls and the unleashed opinion-makers who 'shoot' every day on television is very strong and we only have to give one example, Raphael's concerts at the Wizink Center in Madrid (Spain) on December 16 and 17.

Despite the fact that these musical events fulfilled all the necessary requirements to be carried out, such as covering only 40 percent of the venue's capacity and the necessary social distancing among the attendees, an interested controversy was created around them, linking figures such as 5000 assistants and the maximum 6 people who can meet for Christmas dinners. It is not that they are only totally absurd relationships, who controls that during dinner the relatives of different bubbles do not get too close when they are already high, it is that the increase in cases in Madrid of the virus has been linked to the concerts mentioned without any fundament, as if family gatherings, the greatest vector of the spread of the virus, have nothing to do with it. Social networks are sick of post-truth, that is, of lies.

In conclusion, in 2021, considerable size music festivals could be held without social distance, taking into account the increasing ratio of vaccinated people, but one must ask, is it legal and ethical to discriminate people based on whether they are vaccinated or not? Will the Primavera Sound studio have enough force to impose itself on interested opinions or will it be squashed like a cockroach that is very distasteful to see on the kitchen floor? Playing as an oracle, living in the current 'shock', it is difficult to imagine that in 5 or 6 months, on 25 Saturdays, we will experience a Primavera Sound festival with tens of thousands of attendees per day dancing and jumping together in the Parque del Fòrum from Barcelona. It is also hard to believe that next year there will be no substitute music festival, more ambitious than 500 chairs, that will make us smile as when looking at a dazzled child with a sparkler. Happy New Year!