elrow

In 1870, José Josepet Satorres, a farmer from Fraga, Aragon, opened the Café Josepet in this town (Barrón Promenade, nº 2, located on the left bank of the river Cinca[2]),[17] which would later become a social club. Due to his gambling problem, he had to close the café, which in 1900, once he died, his family (headed by his granddaughter's husband, Antonio Durán[2]) would reopen under the new name of Bar Victoria, to which he would add a Theater Victoria (later, Victoria Cinema). At that time, the Victoria social club would become the main leisure center in the Lower Cinca region. In 1952–53, due to a marriage between the Durán and the Arnau family, the family business expanded, and in addition to the Victoria Cinema, they also began to manage the nearby Florida Cinema-Theater.

During the 60s the first nightclubs appeared in Spain, in which the orchestras were replaced by DJs, and in 1973 the Florida Discotheque Fraga was opened, better known by its definitive name Florida 135,[18] whose setting was inspired by the Bronx, and where the new trends of electronic music were heard: disco, electropop, goa trance, house and acid, the Catalan màkina and the Valencian bakalao, among others.[18]

In 1993, the family organized an event on a farm in the Monegros Desert called Monegros Party, which was attended by 200 friends.[17] This event has continued to be forged until today, the famous Monegros Desert Festival.

In 2001, Fraga's company moved to Barcelona, and they started some sessions called Row began in a Nick Havanna club[2] (Roussillon street, Barcelona). But since this club is not owned by the family, in 2008 the Arnaus acquired their own larger plot on the outskirts of the city, in Viladecans (near El Prat airport) and reopened it under the name Row 14.

Since the company, as agreed with the Viladecans City Council, can only hold 12 annual parties on this plot,[19] in 2010 the company announced a new business model based on "traveling" parties. In other words, organizing events around the world, either in the context of a music festival, obtaining residencies in other venues, such as Amnesia Ibiza, or independently.

In addition, it was decided to add the article el ("the") to the name to make it sound more "Spanishized" and thus, make it more recognizable.[18]

In February 2017, elrow established a partnership and investment agreement with entertainment platform Superstruct Entertainment,[2] backed by investment company Providence Equity Partners, one of the largest in the world. Superstruct Entertainment is chaired by James Barton, founder of the Creamfields festival (UK), and is the same one that in 2018 acquired 60–80% of the Sònar festival (also in Barcelona), the Sziget Festival in Budapest[20] and 85 other events in many countries.[2][21]

"The Elrow team has created a unique experience that is loved by fans. We are excited to partner and support such an impressive team and we look forward to unlocking new growth opportunities for their businesses."

— James Barton, 2017[22]

In January 2017, a shooting took place at the Blue Parrot nightclub in Playa del Carmen, near Cancún (Mexico), at the event that elrow organized for The BPM festival. Linked to a dispute between Mexican drug traffickers, this shooting resulted in 5 deaths, 15 injuries and a "stampede effect" among those attending the party.[23] None of the 30 employees hired by elrow were injured,[24] but the head of security for the event did die when he tried to intervene.[25] 3 suspects were arrested, and the festival management decided to cancel the rest of the events.[25] See also: Ataques en Playa del Carmen y Cancún de 2017.

In April 2017, elrow announced that in July of that same year the Friends & Family music festival would take place in Salou, a town on the Catalan Golden Coast, with an intention of 25,000 attendees.[26] However, shortly thereafter, elrow released an official statement announcing that it would be canceled due to "political disputes in the region",[27] since the event was coordinated with the Salou City Council, but apparently the neighboring town of Vila-seca was not informed.[28] This added to the refusal of the Tarragona Port Authority to locate the festival in its area[29] and the general feeling of rejection among the residents of the town to another macro-festival, in memory of the old tragic Saloufest (2001–2016).[30] Finally, an event was held on the same day at the elrow site in Viladecans.

On 16 July 2017, Alex Masterson, a 19-year-old Briton, died at Bellvitge Hospital due to cardiac arrest after several days of partying in Salou and finally went to elrow de Viladecans on Sunday, where he took MDMA.[31] His friends criticized "that the water was very expensive, 4€ for a 100 ml bottle. You had to wait about 15 minutes to drink, from the amount of people there were". Elrow's management replied that "during a surveillance round we found the boy very agitated. He was notified to an ambulance, where he was stabilized and transferred to the hospital (...) He died four or five hours later at the Bellvitge Hospital due to cardiac arrest. The party had ended hours ago (...) even the Mossos d'Esquadra congratulated us on the excellent organization".[32]

Despite this, the municipal authority confirmed that elrow scrupulously complies with all regulations and security requirements and that "it is not a particularly conflictive place".[19]

On 21 August of that same year, the young British Amy Vigus passed away in Colchester Hospital (England), a day after attending the Elrow Town festival in London.[33] Apparently she took fake MDMA.[34]