As heavy rain lashes Lisbon, Web Summit’s Wednesday schedule is washed away

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The Vasco da Gama shopping centre (already decorated for Christmas), was a shell of its usual self. Once used as a throughway from the Oriente metro stop to Web Summit’s front…

If the heavy rain and strong winds were not clear enough indicators that Web Summit’s Wednesday offering had been washed off, the sight of half a dozen men taking down the front gates settled the matter for those who still turned up at the Lisbon venue.

The eerily quiet industrial suburbs in the Portuguese capital’s eastern area told their own story. The all-but silent road leading to the arena was interrupted only by the small team of security guards sheltering from the rain, occasionally redirecting hopefuls away.

With general admission tickets costing €1,595 and VIPs priced up to €1,950 – not to mention the rare “chairperson” ticketholder who forked out €25,000 – who could really blame them for trying to get their money’s worth?

The schedule of events on Wednesday was cancelled on Tuesday afternoon following earlier comments from Lisbon’s mayor, who said “everything indicates” it could not function. The Portuguese prime minister went further, issuing a recommendation to suspend the day’s events.

The country braced for a day in which two storms overlapped, with the southern half of Portugal (including Lisbon) under level-red warnings for extreme weather.

But not all hope was lost. A saving grace came shortly after 11.30am on Wednesday. “Web Summit is back tomorrow” was the title of the email, sent by the organisers of the technology conference to all its ticket holders.

[ Web Summit cancels events as Portugal issues ‘state of alert’ amid storm warningsOpens in new window ]

“It will be the busiest Thursday ever, with more speakers and more meetups than ever before – with many rescheduled from Wednesday,” the email read. Attendees were encouraged to “keep an eye on the schedule later today for updates”.

Only 20 minutes beforehand, Web Summit chief executive Paddy Cosgrave broke the news to the organisation’s Slack channel. In written correspondence, he said the production team had “worked through the night until 3am to make the site safe”, adding that they would do so…

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