Portugal: Festival plan to be presented to government

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The associations and promoters of shows will present, on the 13th, to the Government, proposals to make feasible the holding of festivals and music events in the context of covid-19.

According to the president of the Portuguese Association of Music Festivals (Aporfest), Ricardo Bramão, the meeting is scheduled for the 13th and will be the first of a series of monthly meetings of representatives of festivals and shows with the Minister of Culture, “preparing for the year 2021 of festivals, on rules, procedures, to understand the current”.

The entrepreneur Luís Montez, the promoter Music in the Heart, said that the Association of Promoters of Shows, Festivals and Events (APEFE) “will present a set of solutions to make possible the resumption of festivals”. The covid-19 pandemic prevented dozens of shows in Portugal in 2020 and forced the postponement of festivals and other events for this year.

Although there are dates scheduled for several summer festivals, such as Rock in Rio Lisboa, Alive (Oeiras), Primavera Sound(Porto) and Sudoeste (Zambujeira do Mar), promoters want to know under what conditions they can perform. “It is to create spaces, bubbles, free of covid-19, which is ‘only enter who has vaccine or have negative test’, in addition to other measures: ‘cashless’, recyclable cups, alcohol gel to be distributed in backpacks. There are several ideas [such as] collaboration with various laboratories, in the sense of ‘who has a ticket, go to the laboratory and do the test'”, said Luís Montez.

Ricardo Bramão hopes that the scenarios in which promoters and festivals can work, that there are “solutions to avoid the stockings of the venue”, that the issue of ticket return be addressed and that there will be a “tax relief for promoters” before three years, between 2019 and 2021, of financial losses. “What we want is to work. Obviously we would like to be compensated for the losses we had in the past year; now, we can’t look back… We want to work; more than subsidies and compensation… when that comes we don’t exist anymore. We have to find practical solutions,” said Luís Montez. The promoter considered that the resumption of the festivals will necessarily have to involve the Directorate-General for Health and the existing laboratories in the country, especially for a reduction in the prices of rapid tests to covid-19. A source from the Ministry of Culture confirmed to Lusa that the meeting is scheduled for 12pm on Wednesday, the 13th.

Originally published by theportugalnews.com on 10th January 2021 SOURCE

Sam Hyland
Author: Sam Hyland

Sam is the assistant content manager for Event Industry News (EIN). Sam is involved in publishing news stories, videos and podcasts. Sam also collates the latest stories for the EIN e-newsletter. If you have a press release or story you think we might be interested to know about please email editor@eventindustrynews.com

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