Mad Cool unveils new 30k-cap festival in Malaga
The organisers of Mad Cool festival in Madrid have announced a new 30,000-capacity festival for Málaga, Spain.
Andalusia Big Festival is to take place near Sacaba Beach from 8–10 September this year, with headliners Muse and Jamiroquai.
Years & Years, Biffy Clyro, Nova Twins, Michael Kiwanuka, Paolo Nutini, Stereophonics and Run the Jewels are also among the 52 acts slated to perform.
According to the organisers, the festival will comprise three stages in the 50,000 square metre arena next to the beach.
The organisers estimate that the event will have an economic impact of around €25m in Andalusia
The ministry of tourism is reportedly dedicating €4m of its EU funds to the event in order to bring tourism to the area outside the normal peak season.
The organisers estimate that the event will have an economic impact of around €25m in Andalusia.
Alongside the launch of the Andalusia Big Festival, the Live Nation-promoted Mad Cool will return to Madrid between 6–10 July this year, in an extended five-day format.
Florence + The Machine, Queens Of The Stone Age, Haim, Chvrches, Sam Fender, Arlo Parks, Glass Animals and Easy Life are slated to play the fifth-anniversary edition.
Those artists join the 104 acts announced for Mad Cool 2022 last June, which include Muse, The Killers and Metallica.
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Spanish promoter develops Covid-tracking app
A Spanish concert promoter has developed Spain’s first track-and-trace tool for concertgoers and nightclubbers.
Created by Granada promoter, DJ and production manager Álex Garvín Delgado, CEO of Girando Eventos, Alerta Covid aims to help control and contain outbreaks of coronavirus in Andalusia, where it is mandatory for all clubbers to share their personal data to assist in tracing the spread of the virus.
The system launched yesterday (6 August) at a concert in Cadiz, Garvín tells Radio Granada’s Hoy por Hoy Granada, with attendees able to scan a QR code with their phones to access the Alerta Covid platform.
Track and trace, or contact tracing, allows public health authorities to identify everyone who has been in contact with someone who has Covid-19, thus containing the spread of the virus by ordering them to self-isolate.
Such systems are credited with helping fans get back to shows in advance of a vaccine against Covid-19, most notably in South Korea, Taiwan and New Zealand, with Austria also announcing recently that contact tracing would allow it to permit 10,000-person shows from September.
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Live Nation fined €15k over AC/DC refund dispute
The city of Seville has fined Live Nation €15,000 for failing to provide refunds for AC/DC’s Axl Rose-fronted show at Seville Olympic Stadium last May.
The gig, part of the European leg of Australian band’s Rock or Bust world tour, was the subject of a complaint by Spanish NGO Facua–Consumers in Action, which successfully argued the promoter breached Andalusian law by allegedly ignoring some ticketholders’ requests for refunds and closing the refund window after just three days.
Guns N’ Roses frontman Rose became lead singer for the 2015–16 tour midway through last year following the sudden retirement of long-serving vocalist Brian Johnson.
Andalusia’s performance regulations specify concertgoers are entitled to a full refund when a show is “substantially amended”
Live Nation had, explains Facua, previously promised to “refund the money of those who asked for it” without specifying a deadline. “Facua announced the company’s commitment on 26 April,” it says in a statement. “But, overwhelmed by the requests, the promoter informed the association by email on 1 May (a Sunday and public holiday, so Monday was also not workable in much of the country) that the deadline for processing returns closed on day three – an unexpected decision that [left] a multitude of users surprised and without any room for manoeuvre”.
Facua also says many customers were told simply “We regret to inform you that we have stopped serving the requests for reimbursement”, and that some “did not even get a response to their writing, despite having been submitted their requests before 3 May”.
Article 23.1 of Andalusia’s performance regulations specifies concertgoers are entitled to a full refund “when the public spectacle or recreational activity is suspended, postponed or substantially amended”, and provide for fines of up to €30,000 for violations.
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