Barcelona Beach Festival will take place in the end after eleventh-hour agreement
Event was originally denied permit due to missing fire safety report
The Barcelona Beach Festival will in the end take place on Saturday evening, as originally scheduled.
The event was denied its permit on Friday afternoon, only one day before being held, but the local council of Sant Adrià de Besòs U-turned on Saturday morning and gave its go-ahead at the eleventh hour after a late agreement between the municipality's mayor, Filomena Cañete, and the director-general of the Catalan government's department ruling over the firefighters, Joan Delort.
Sant Adrià de Besòs local council had rejected the show saying the festival had submitted key paperwork 12 days late and this prevented the firefighters from issuing a binding fire safety report.
"If the [firefighters'] report is not issued, we are risking a public order problem," Cañete had said on Rac1 radio station.
Yet, the deal between Cañete and Delort on Saturday led to the firefighters agreeing to issue the paper, required by Sant Adrià to grant their permit.
The organizing company, Live Nation, denied the accusations of submitting paperwork late and announced on Friday evening that it would file a criminal lawsuit against Sant Adrià's mayor, Filomena Cañete, and her deputy mayor, Ruth Soto.
Indeed, the company said it was up to Sant Adrià to make sure the report was issued on time and added they had sent all details well in advance.
Despite the tension, neither the organizers, Live Nation, nor the local council, had ruled out going ahead with the festival at any time.
The festival will open its doors at 4pm and will last until 6am in Sant Adrià's Platja del Fòrum beach and Parc de la Pau. Around 25,000 attendants are expected.
Barcelona Beach Festival supposed to return after Covid hiatus
The Barcelona Beach Festival, which specializes in electronic dance music, will in the end return after two canceled editions in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19.
Armin Van Buuren, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, and Vini Vici are some of the artists scheduled to perform, as well as Marshmello, Don Diablo, and Sergi Domene, with tickets starting at €84.
David Guetta and Don Diablo featured in the last edition, held in 2019.