Doctor Music Festival comeback edition canceled

As Catalonia gears up for its season of summer music festivals, one major event will be missing this year: the Doctor Music Festival, which had planned its big comeback.

Considered Spain's first ever macro-music festival (the first edition was in 1996), the promoters were forced to cancel the event due to problems over ticket sales.

The iconic rockfest was to have returned after 19 years, but when the organizers were forced to switch the venue from its home in the Pyrenees, people began returning their tickets.

It seems the new venue at Catalonia's Montmeló racetrack, between July 12 and 14, "has not been well-received by the public," according to the festival's founder, Neo Sala.

Flood risk in Pyrenees

The reason for the change of venue was a warning by Catalonia's ACA water agency that the festival's traditional site in Escalarre, in Lleida, posed a significant flood risk.

While the event's organizers challenged the agency's warning as "arbitrary," they were forced to relocate the event, leading to "a huge number of fans canceling their tickets."

After the relocation was announced, ticket sales slowed, leading the organizers to conclude: "We ultimately won’t be able to offer the experience we were striving for," says Sala.

Artists of the stature of Rosalía, The Chemical Brothers, The Strokes, The Smashing Pumpkins, King Crimson, Sabaton, James Murphy and Primal Scream were due to perform.

Ticket refunds from June 21

While fans will now miss out on seeing some of their favorite bands, the organizers will automatically refund all tickets bought through the festival website, beginning on June 21.

Meanwhile, people who bought tickets through a third party service, such as Entradas.com or Ticketmaster, will have to contact the broker in question to claim their refund.

Sala publicly thanked all the people and organizations involved in organizing the event, but added: "Today, the Doctor Music Festival is canceled. But the spirit of the cow is still alive.”