Feroe cancels its second edition: the Poble Espanyol festival failed to reach the 2,000 tickets it needed

Feroe will not make it to a second edition. The festival Albert Puig devised for an adult audience tired of crowds has cancelled the night of 13 November at the Poble Espanyol de Barcelona, featuring St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Beth Orton and Tiwayo, because it did not draw the 2,000 people it needed to balance the books. It made the announcement on 22 October on its website, in a statement signed by its director.

The notice has a practical side, for those who already had tickets, and a lengthy reflection by Puig on the live music business that goes well beyond a routine cancellation.

What happens to tickets: the refund is automatic

Anyone who had bought a ticket for Feroe'26 does not need to do anything. According to the statement, all tickets will be refunded automatically and the amount will be paid back over the coming days; there is no need to contact the organisers or request a refund. Barcelona City Council's listings already mark the concert as cancelled and include the same notice.

Tickets were sold through the festival's own Koobin platform, and general admission cost €48. The notice does not set a specific deadline, so the practical thing to do is keep an eye on the card or account used to pay over the coming days. If the refund does not appear, any claim should be made through the channel where the ticket was bought.

A single night, €48 and fewer than 2,000 tickets sold

Feroe was born in 2025 with a very specific concept. Puig, a journalist and the festival's director, presented it at the time in Time Out as an event for over-40s who had drifted away from festivals because of the discomforts: a single stage, performances with no clashes and half an hour between each, seating areas, enough staff to avoid queues at the bars and prices with no dynamic ticketing, with a capacity of around 3,000 people per day.

The first edition, on 14 and 15 November 2025 at the same venue, brought together The Tallest Man on Earth, The Jayhawks, Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets, Squeeze, Valerie June and The Weather Station. La Ganzúa, which covered it, estimated attendance at around 1,000 people and highlighted that the concerts followed one another without clashes.

For 2026 the festival concentrated its main day into a single night, from 19:00 to 00:00, with three names: the soul of St. Paul & The Broken Bones, the Alabama band; British singer-songwriter Beth Orton, who was presenting The Ground Above; and Tiwayo, with Outsider, his third album, recorded in Austin with Adrián Quesada. According to EFE, the edition also included a warm-up concert by The Autumn Defense on 20 October at the Antiga Fàbrica Estrella Damm, as part of the Delicatessen by Feroe series. Even with that smaller format, the numbers did not add up. The statement refers to ‘the few tickets sold’, but does not give the figure, so it is not known how far short of 2,000 it fell.

Albert Puig points to fees and an audience that does not turn up

Puig titles his text ‘Feroe, the importance of failing’ and admits that his idea ‘has not quite found its place’. But he maintains that the festival has not fallen solely because of a lack of audience. He considers many artists' prices ‘simply indecent’, criticises the way paying €200 for a ticket is becoming normal after buying processes he describes as humiliating, and points to the barriers that separate audiences according to their purchasing power. He also points to forms of support which, in his view, favour quantity over quality.

The other half of the criticism is aimed at the public. Puig notes that many voices complain about the discomforts and prices of big events, but that when it comes to buying tickets, the response does not materialise. It is the most uncomfortable part of the statement, and it has some basis: Feroe was born with precisely what many of those critics ask for, from fixed pricing to a single stage with no dashing between concerts, and still did not sell enough. The statement does not, however, go into other factors that also weigh on sales, such as the chosen line-up or competition from other events in Barcelona that same month.

There is no date for a third edition, but no farewell either. ‘The first battle has been lost’, writes Puig, who says his determination to seek out ‘kinder and fairer’ models of live music remains intact.

Where to see St. Paul & The Broken Bones and Beth Orton in November

Feroe's artists are not disappearing from the Spanish calendar, although seeing them from Barcelona will mean travelling. These dates were on sale on Ticketmaster on 23 October. ModoFestival may receive a commission if you buy through this link, at no extra cost to you.

• St. Paul & The Broken Bones: Thursday 12 November at the Auditorio Roig Arena in Valencia, at 21:00, and Saturday 14 November at Sala Wagon in Madrid, also at 21:00.
• Beth Orton: Monday 16 November at Sala Villanos in Madrid, at 20:30.

Those who would rather stay in the city have other options in November: Mira Festival takes place at Fira Montjuïc on 6 and 7 November, and the Festival de Jazz de Barcelona continues its autumn programme. The rest of the month is covered in our November festivals guide and in our listings of festivals in Barcelona. The Poble Espanyol, for its part, will not be left without live music: in summer BARTS 2027 returns, with Jack Johnson and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Sources: Feroe statement on festivalferoe.com (22 October 2026); Guia Barcelona listings from Barcelona City Council; EFE, via Infobae (5 October 2026); Time Out Barcelona (15 October 2025); La Ganzúa's review of the 2025 edition; La Vanguardia (22 October 2026); Ticketmaster, consulted on 23 October 2026.