MADRID — Patron Saint festivities in Adeje postponed until 7:30 p.m. due to high temperatures.
Annual concert in Segovia suspended due to weather alert of heavy rain.
Correfocs in Banyeres de Mariola canceled due to heat and high risk of fire.
These are actual headlines that have been published by Spanish newspapers over the past two summers. They reveal a side of the climate crisis that we don’t often consider: Is global warming going to put an end to our cultural festivals?
With climate change and rising temperatures, it is becoming more and more common for people to experience extreme heat at cultural and artistic events, such as music festivals. Last year, pop star Taylor Swift canceled a show in Rio de Janeiro after a member of the audience died of heat exhaustion on the first night of her tour in the Brazilian city.
Those organizing festivals and other popular parties are now beginning to consider that perhaps it is time to adapt to the new climate context and avoid the days and hours with the highest temperatures.
Longer summers
It has always been hot in summer. And it is getting hotter. Both statements, which are not incompatible, often depend on each person’s perception and their meteorological memory (which is usually short and unreliable).
Yet the data is clear: in almost all of Spain, summers have clearly grown longer since the 1940s. According to data from Spanish weather agency AEMET, summers are now an average of one month longer than in the past. That means that there are more and more days with maximum temperatures typical of summer, an increase that cannot be explained by weather’s simple natural variability.
This has direct consequences on the health. Heat-related deaths are skyrocketing (more than 60,000 in Europe between June and September 2022) and hospitalizations drastically increase in summer. Heat also puts stress on our nervous system, making us more irascible and even more violent, and ultimately, increasing our bad mood.
“To function correctly, even when it is very hot, the body needs its temperature to remain around 37 °C. When the body detects that everything around is heating up, the brain gives orders to try to stop or reduce the uncomfortable feeling of suffocation,” says Susana P. Gaytán, professor of Physiology at the University of Seville.
Castells in the shade…
August 19 is Tarragona’s big day. To honor Sant Magí (Saint Maginus), curious spectators gather at noon in this Catalan city, and fill the Les Cols square to see teams build castells, or human towers — a centuries-old tradition that has UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status.
The crowds, the physical effort (the most difficult castells are more than eight stories high) and celebrations in the middle of the day, on the hottest days of the year (temperatures reached 40°C last year on those dates): It’s the perfect mix to suffer the effects of climate change.
“The castellers (the people who are part of the team forming the castell) feel they are experiencing more and more heat. We decided to analyze it with data,” says Anna Boqué, a researcher at the Rovira i Virgili University who studies the impact of climate change on these celebrations. “Throughout the places we’ve analyzed, the evidence of the increase in temperature and humidity since 1951 is clear.”
“Some want to stay faithful to the tradition and won’t consider changing the time or the day.”
The study started by comparing temperatures at festivals in Valls, La Bisbal del Penedès, Tarragona and Vilafranca del Penedès to nearby weather stations; it found that the temperatures in the central squares of the towns and in the middle of the crowds were higher than the ones recorded at the weather stations.
The next step of the study is to analyze how castellers perceive the impact of these climate conditions on this tradition, and to study possible adaptation strategies with them, Boqué said, adding that “it is not easy.”
“Some want to stay faithful to the tradition and won’t consider changing the time or the day. But other teams are open to changing the dates. They have also proposed some solutions that are simple but important for their health, such as wetting the scarves they wear, to better regulate the body temperature, having cold water available or limiting the crowds around the castells,” she said?
Safety first
Castells are not an isolated case in Spain. Most of the fiestas in Andalusia are held during the summer, and for years health workers have been advising festivalgoers on how to protect themselves from high temperatures.
Extreme temperatures – day or night – are already a common element of music festivals and street parties on Iberian Peninsula and Spanish islands. And even other cultural events such as the Camino de Santiago are considering measures to adapt to climate change.
“Climate change implies that every sector — from tourism, to sports or cultural events — has to adapt. Cultural heritage is no exception. Plus, it is something intangible, it is not fixed, and if it is not adapted for its conservation it can end up being forgotten,” Boqué says, adding that “This adaptation has to come from those who organize, care for and participate in this heritage, because they are the ones who suffer from climate change and who will experience the adaptation measures.”
In the meantime, it is worth remembering the basic measures for beating the heat: staying cool, wearing light clothing, drinking plenty of water, eating lightly, not doing intense physical exercise, not drinking alcoholic or caffeinated drinks in excess and taking as much advantage as possible of the shade and air-conditioned places.
Perhaps in a few years, Spain’s Ministry of Health will have to add one more recommendation to the list: festivals, preferably in a cool place.
