Photos: In Barcelona, 5,000 fans attend gig for COVID-19 trial

Barcelona: Musicians on stage, spotlights flooding the arena and 5,000 fans dancing ecstatically: live music was back in Barcelona Saturday for a clinical trial seeking pandemic-safe ways to celebrate mass events.

Ahead of the party, everyone underwent mass screening and antigen tests, donning FPP2 surgical masks to attend the gig which comes after an unprecedented year of confinement, social distancing and very little social interaction.

Behind the event is a group of music and festival promoters as well as a local hospital who say the safety measures, which include a special ventilation system, make it a safer space than inside a private home.

When a person tested negative, the entry pass downloaded on an app on their phone was validated. The only other requirement was that they wear an FPP2 mask while inside the venue.

"We expect it to be completely safe. Over the next 14 days we will look at how many of the audience test positive for Covid and will report back," explained Josep Maria Llibre, a doctor at the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital just north of Barcelona.

"We expect it to be completely safe. Over the next 14 days we will look at how many of the audience test positive for Covid and will report back," explained Josep Maria Llibre, a doctor at the Germans Trias i Pujol hospital just north of Barcelona.

The tickets for Saturday's concert sold out within just a few hours.

The public, the staff and the band are part of a mass experiment that organizers say is the largest concert without social distancing of the coronavirus era.