'Creative' Covid-safe solutions for first post-pandemic Feria de Abril 

PREPARING for the first Feria de Abril since the Covid-19 pandemic reached Spain has involved some 'structural' changes for Sevilla, but residents and visitors heading to the southern city for its week-long street festival will find it every bit as enjoyable as they have for generations.

The 'April Fair', or Feria de Abril – due to be held in May this year rather than April after a three-year hiatus – normally involves crowds, so 'creative' measures have been devised as a necessity to minimise the likelihood of contagion among the public, the participants and the organisers.

Ahead of the grand switching-on of the lights to mark the start of the massive and much-loved fiesta, the hundreds, or thousands, of professionals, volunteers, and festival club members have been working behind the scenes on ways to improve safety.

One of the key differences this year will involve double awnings for the roofs of casetas, or market stall huts, rather than single-sheet covers.

These will allow the air inside the huts to circulate rather than stagnate, providing vital ventilation – which is key to preventing contagion in enclosed indoor areas.

The non-mechanical ventilation structure will be fitted at the back of the huts, where the greatest density of people congregates – largely because this is where cooking happens on the food stalls and where the bar, restaurant and catering area is based - and where smoke, steam and heat would otherwise build up.

In this way, the overall outer look of these colourful casetas does not change, from the point of view of the general public.

The restaurant seating area will look just the same, whilst the 'extra' roof part will be above the technical preparation area.

And the trademark red-and-white and green-and-white stripes on the roof canvas will not change.

Seats are likely to be spaced farther apart, people attending to the public and serving food will be wearing masks, and these will be compulsory for visitors in general in indoor areas, as is the case for everyday life in Spain.

Wristbands fitted with an NFC chip or QR code, known as 'La Pulse', created by Sevilla-based start-up Bracelit, have been adopted by a handful of casetas, allowing customers to make contactless payments if they wish, and to keep track of numbers of people entering and control crowds.

Social distancing is likely to be greater by default at the first Feria de Abril of the 2020s, given that around 200 of the usual 1,000 or so casetas are still unclaimed by traders, with barely a month and a half to go before the start.

People who made their living as travelling stallholders, on themed markets, fêtes and at festivals, have, in many cases, had to pack up and seek another line of work or an alternative outlet for their wares in the past two years, given that Spain has been mostly fiesta-free with few or no on-street celebrations since March 2020 and with none at all anywhere in the country for most of that first year.