Breakdown of Este es el recinto en el que iba a tocar la banda.
ser
to be
en
in / on / at
tocar
to play (an instrument)
ir
to go
Questions & Answers about Este es el recinto en el que iba a tocar la banda.
Why do we need the article el in en el que? Couldn't we just say en que?
After short prepositions like en, de, or con, you can sometimes drop the article and just use que (like el recinto en que...). However, including the definite article (el, la, los, las) to match the noun is much more common and natural in modern Spanish. Here, el clearly points back to the masculine singular noun recinto.
Could I use en el cual or donde instead of en el que?
Why is the subject, la banda, at the very end of the sentence?
In Spanish relative clauses (the part of the sentence starting with en el que), it is very common to invert the subject and verb. This keeps the verb right next to the relative pronoun, which sounds better to a native speaker. Saying ...en el que la banda iba a tocar is grammatically correct, but putting la banda at the end flows much more naturally.