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The Show Goes On: Portugal Hosts First Concerts Since Lockdown
Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty Images – Some 2,200 people per night attended two concerts by Bruno Nogueira and Manuela Azevedo at the Campo Pequeno in Lisbon, Portugal, June 1-2.
Portugal entered its final phase of reopening the country on June 1, when shopping centers, cinemas and concert halls were finally allowed to open again.
The first concert took place in the country’s capital Lisbon, at the Campo Pequeno, which usually has a capacity of 5,000. For the June 1 performance of Bruno Nogueira and Manuela Azevedo, however, only roughly half the tickets were put on sale.
2,000 tickets sold out in 11 minuted, Nogueira posted on his Instagram account, which is why a second performance was added for June 2. Tickets for the first show went for €5, while those for the second cost €10. According to Noguera’s Instagram, 2,200 people saw the show each night, which would mean a ticket gross of €33,000 ($37,000).
A rep working at Campo Pequeno, told Pollstar, that both concerts “went very well, they were an excellent way to get back on track.”
Measures taken at the venue included the need to wear face masks from the moment visitors queued for entry, until they left the room. They were invited to disinfect their hands at the entrance, there were designated lanes for guests circulating the building’s corridors, as well as markers to keep a distance while queueing. The venue also opened different doors for different categories of tickets, which reduced the number of people entering through each door.
What is more, the dome of the building was opened, which allowed for greater air circulation.
“We also advised the public not to sit in places with a “no sitting” sign, in order to keep the distance from other spectators,” the company rep explained. Like in most European countries, people from the same household are allowed to go out together and ignore distancing regulations.
The venue’s operators and the local promoter of the show, Everything is New, asked the audience to avoid getting up during the show, and to remain seated at the end of the program until the assistant gave directions on how to exit the room in an orderly fashion, thereby avoiding crowds in the corridors and on access stairs.
“The people who came to any of the two concert days left with a sense of security. The distance between chairs, the use of a mask and all the orientations created comfort and confidence,” the spokesperson said.
Pedro Gomes/Redferns – The audience take their seats at Campo Pequeno during Deixem o Pimba em Paz performance at the first concert in Portugal after the easing of lockdown restrictions.
Campo Pequeno has a capacity of about 5,000 people but could only allow for 2,000 tickets to this concert which sold out in 11 minutes.
At press time, the venue had already confirmed one more concert by Portuguese artist Dino D’Santiago on June 6. The June 9 concert by James Blunt had to be cancelled, seeing that international had to cancel their summer tours through Europe for lack of certainty regarding each European market’s reopening strategy.
Campo Pequeno will maintain the capacity limitations until the competent authorities completely lift restrictions.
Portugal’s prime minister António Costa and his wife Fernanda Tadeu attended the June 1 performance. The politician told Spanish new site sicnoticias.pt, that there was only one way to address the struggle of artists in the current crisis, which was to let them recommence their activity.
An Instagram post Nogueira wrote after the two concerts translates as: “There were several things that moved me on these two nights of restarting culture by taking small baby steps: being able to be on stage again, seeing technicians and musicians working joyfully, feeling the audience receiving us with more love than ever before, or a lot, anyways.”
What impressed Nogueira most was the balance that was struck between facilitating as normal a concert experience as possible, while caring for the public’s health. “Nobody broke the rules,” he wrote, “whoever was there felt safe, and that is why these two nights created a happy and soothing memory. (…) They were two very beautiful shows, and feeling the thirst for new times was worth everything. But the respect and care of 2,200 people per night, none of them thinking about themselves at the expense of public health, may have been the greatest triumph.”
Nogueira performed a concert from his project “Deixem o Pimba em Paz,” which is dedicated to the Portuguese musical genre known as pimba – jazzy and poppy melodies with an emphasis on the lyrics. He’s been touring with the show since 2013, kicking things off in Lisbon, the Portuguese capital that now also hosted the return of live music.
Other European countries are gradually lifting their Covid-19 restrictions, as well, notably the Nordics, where concerts are also returning this month.