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A trance festival is planned to go ahead in Croatia in August.

With festivals cancelled weekly amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the likes of Tomorrowland taking their 2020 instalments on line, Croatia’s trance and progressive AWAKE festival have confirmed they attend to go ahead with the event next month.

With a reduced capacity of 1,000 party go-ers, the festival will take place on Zrce Beach from the 20th to the 23rd August, with performances from the likes of Aly & Fila, Cosmic Gate, Paul Thomas and Paul van Dyk. Several other Croatian festivals, including Dimensions and Outlook, were either postponed or cancelled earlier this year.

Elsewhere, the BPM festival, which is scheduled to take place in September in Malta, has caused conflict on social media between those for and opposing the event. Some are even calling for the boycott of the festival amid a petition, which currently has over 15,000 signees, to halt mass gatherings in Malta.

In an article from Maltese news outlet The Shift, they shared that The Medical Association of Malta had criticised Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli and the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) for promoting mass events actively “creating grave danger of a major and uncontrollable epidemic”, and statements made by Prime Minister Robert Abela which have “encouraged people not to comply with the recommendations of the Superintendent of Public Health”.

Festivals around the world have had to be cancelled or postponed due the COVID-19 pandemic since March this year, along with countless club closures and tour cancellations. While the pandemic has led to several festivals moving into the world of live-streaming, or even the virtual world, some reports suggest that the festival industry is under threat of total collapse.