The annual Blues Festival that is held in the castle/fortress of La Herradura in August has been blown out by the new Covid-19 restrictions.

The said restrictions announced by the Junta de Andalucía not only closed down the nightlife sector in the region; i.e. pubs and discotheques, but also put new conditions concernig people gathering at concerts etc; be they indoor or outdoor ones.

“The present health restrictions make it impossible for any event of these characteristics to take place,” explained the event organiser, Carmen López.

The problem is that the festival was scheduled for next week but the new regulations stipulate that a project study and layout plans should be submitted to the Department of Public Health – there isn’t time. Furthermore, there can now be no bar within the venue.

Another problem is that spectators will have to spend the three hours that the event lasts wearing a mask. The organisers thought that if they managed to have a break half way through when the audience could go out and take their masks off, it would be less of a burden but if they let the spectators out, the event venue would have to be disinfected again before they were allowed back in.

In short, to let the 2-day event go ahead would have been a nightmare, so all the ticket sales already taken will have to be returned and… the event organisers will still have to cover the commission earnt by the internet platforms that sold the tickets.

Carmen López, herself, summed it up by pointing out that “first comes people’s health, then comes the festival” but she promised that next year will have the same bill; i.e. participating musicians.

(News: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)