A Spanish music festival association has urged the government to implement ticketing measures to save its festival industry, and WeWillRecover initiative launches to support the live events industry in its recovery from COVID-19…
A Spanish music festival association has called on the government to introduce measures such as ticket flexibility to safeguard the sector in the European market.
The Asociación de Festivales de Música (FMA), which represents the interests of festival organisers across Spain, said the country “could become the first without festivals.”
Yesterday (Wednesday), Spain announced a four-phase plan to lift its strict lockdown measures and return to a “new normality” by the end of June. However, the FMA expects “the mass suspension of festivals and music events for the 2020 summer season”, which will “jeopardise the rest of the year due to the unfeasibility of rescheduling every event,” IQ reports.
The Spanish Council of Ministers, the main collective decision-making body of the government, is meeting on May 5 to approve measures for the cultural sector, with small cultural events of up to 200 people under social distancing rules to be allowed from May 11. From May 25, indoor concerts will reopen at a third of their usual capacity to a maximum of 50 people, with seated, open-air events to allow up to 400 people.
For the Spanish festival industry, the FMA has proposed that ticketholders should be given the option to roll tickets over for rescheduled events or exchange them for another events or festival via a voucher. If these options are not feasible, the FMA said refunds should be provided within 18 months of the cancellation date.
Spanish festivals including Primavera Sound, Mallorca Live and Vina Rock have rescheduled for another date in 2020, with organisers of Sónar, Mad Cool, Bilbao BBK, FIB, and Arenal Sound, yet to make announcements.
A new initiative, WeWillRecover, has been launched to support the live events industry.
The initiative will support organisations across the live entertainment industry by providing information, content, videos, tips and other benefits via industry input from TheTicketingBusiness, Stay22, Activity Stream, Shubert Organisation and AudienceView, among others.
A statement from WeWillRecover said: “The re-opening will be a difficult challenge for every organisation, as there is no precedent and many problems will have to be solved for the first time. This is the case across the global community, making it essential to learn from experts and case stories.”
The WeWillRecover website will include four sections, which will be articles, videos, events such as webinars, and community, which will be a place for organisations to share questions and information with one another.
“TheTicketingBusiness is supportive of this important initiative,” said Angelina Tennino, co-founder, TheTicketingBusiness. “We will be supplying relevant content from our news and research services – along with its 30,000+ subscribers across the ticketing sector globally – to feed into the WeWillRecover initiative.”
If you or your organisation has tools, content or ideas to help organisations recover from the COVID-19 crisis please contact TheTicketingBusiness team by email here.
Florida’s theme parks and attractions such as Universal Orlando and Disney World could reopen at 50 per cent capacity under recommendations published by the state Governor.
Florida’s major theme parks have been closed since mid-March and the current stay-at-home order expires tomorrow (Thursday).
A preliminary reopening roadmap released by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force includes two phases.
The initial recommendations includes operating larger theme parks at 50 per cent capacity during a Phase 1 period, which could increase to 75 per cent capacity in Phase 2. However, the report does not indicate when the move from phase one to two would take place.
In addition, the report said employees will be required to wear facemasks, touchless hand sanitisers will be installed at each ticketing entry and turnstile, and at each ride/attraction entry and exit and there will be temperature checks for staff prior to their shifts.
Image: Paul Hudson
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