Since 2001, Primavera Sound, one of Europe's largest festivals, has enlivened Spain's Barcelona with its unflinching commitment to live music. According to two sources with close knowledge of the festival, Primavera Sound will resume next year in an expanded version after being canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

In a new format, the festival will take place on June 2-5 and June 9-12 of 2022 in the northeastern Spanish city, doubling its usual length. It will have around 400 shows across two lineups that will include major singers, the sources said.

No decision has been made yet on whether to keep the new two-weekend format beyond 2022, one of the sources said. The festival organizer declined to comment.

Pandemic measures have hit the global entertainment industry especially hard, with large gatherings such as concerts and festivals canceled all over the world.

But the sector hopes vaccination campaigns and the easing of restrictions will slowly allow a return to normality.

In a sign of hope to Europe's moribund live-music sector, a trial concert held in March in Barcelona where 5,000 people took rapid COVID-19 tests and crammed into a venue wearing masks but without social distancing did not drive up infections.

Around 220,000 people attended Primavera Sound in 2019, with half of them coming from outside Spain and the majority of them were British.