When the weather dictates the script

“We should all buy an air conditioner,” someone jokes as soon as they take their seat at the Teatre Grec this Friday. It takes less than a minute to notice the heaviness in the air; it's 10 p.m. and the thermometer reads almost 30 degrees. The heat is felt, but it's also visible in the vigorous—and almost synchronized—flashing of dozens of fans. Even so, the emblematic cultural space on Montjuïc is packed for the performance of William Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona . From the highest seats, Red Cross personnel watch attentively. Barely 30 minutes have passed since the start of the show when a member of the audience stands up, feeling unwell.

Summer hasn't guaranteed peaceful nights for some time now. Cultural events—especially those held outdoors—have become a logistical challenge in the face of high temperatures. The last heat wave in Barcelona marked history with highs reaching 37.6 degrees in mid-June, and what's coming doesn't look any more encouraging. A study by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona projects that the city could face heat waves up to six degrees more intense by the end of the century.

Cultural shows are adapting with new schedules and cancellation policies due to weather.

"We decided to delay the start of the show by half an hour. We also opted to wet the entire concert area," explains Carlos Pérez, director of the Alma Festival. At Poble Espanyol, the festival's venue, the heat remains pressed to the ground even though the sun has set behind the buildings. On the hottest days in Barcelona, there were between five or six heat waves per day, according to the organizers.

Chadya and José, the concert's paramedics, kept their eyes on the audience throughout the G-5 band's performance. "We've already had several heat strokes in the queue," Chadya says in a warning tone. For both of them, "the biggest risk" is dehydration because "you don't realize when it happens." A few days ago, José recalls, they found a young woman lying on the floor after the show, dripping with sweat. "The first thing that should be done at these events is to have hydration stations," they assert.

“Logistically, this scenario means you have to have more foresight and more backup plans. In reality, all of these backup plans are already part of plan A,” says Montse Portús, executive coordinator of the Grec Festival. In addition to reorganizing schedules—as at the Grec Festival, where shows are only performed during the cooler hours—large-scale productions have incorporated equipment to mitigate the heat and are also anticipating possible cancellations due to weather. Theaters belonging to the production company Focus, for example, have implemented immediate refunds for spectators who, due to weather conditions, were unable to attend a performance.

However, it's not just the heat, it's also the rain. Last weekend's storm disrupted Barcelona's cultural schedule, with a series of cancellations and reschedulings. "Having great artists on stage requires hours of setup and production. If you also have to change schedules, it's even more difficult," says Jordi Herreruela, director of the Cruïlla Festival. The show started three hours later than scheduled, after the Barcelona Emergency Operations Coordination Center (Cecor) gave them the green light. "We're still unsure whether the insurance will be paid. It covers the cancellation, but the problem is that we opened and the show went on. Perhaps the insurance needs to be adjusted," he explains.

Read also

Something similar happened to the open-air cinema at Sala Montjuïc, in Les Tres Xemeneies de Sant Adrià. The organizers had to delay the screening of Wicked due to rain, resulting in only 30% of the venue's total attendance. "I think we'll have to sit down and think carefully about how to handle these situations in the coming years," says director Nathalie Modigliani.

Other (indoor) movie theaters have fared better. In fact, most operate as climate shelters. "You can tell at the 4 p.m. showing, which is quite bad in the winter, where a lot of people come in the summer, especially older people," says David García, marketing manager at the Verdi cinema. For García, options like the Take Refuge in Culture program, which offers free and discounted cultural activities during the summer in Madrid, are initiatives that could also be considered for Barcelona.

Of course, event organizers assure us, culture will continue to be essential for Barcelona. It always has been. However, the challenge lies in knowing how to adapt it to the unfortunate script that climate change is writing for cities.