• Total blockade. All theaters in Madrid are closed due to the coronavirus
  • Coronavirus. Madrid Book Fair postponed
  • Consequences. The great museums are closed "until further notice"
  • Event: An actor from 'Gomorra', locked up with the corpse of his sister killed by coronavirus
  • Madrid: Marcelo Peralta, Argentine jazz saxophonist, dies with coronavirus
  • Literature How to pass the coronavirus quarantine reading sagas, trilogies and moles for which we never had time
  • Culture: Dismissals in musicals and closing of cinemas

«It will cause a total ruin», this is how forceful the producer Jesús Cimarro , president of the Association of Producers and Theaters of Madrid, shows himself. In the capital they have all closed and in Barcelona only a few remain. A particularly dramatic situation for private individuals, who find themselves against the ropes when it comes to reducing their capacity to the third required by regulations if they have less than a thousand seats. In fact, most will not be able to apply it: "It is better to cancel ...", many promoters assure.

"In short, we will all close", warn from the Association of Theater of Catalonia, the second largest scenic plaza in Spain. Tours suspended, school functions canceled in the high season of this group and "life paralyzed for thousands of culture workers," they explain.

Meanwhile, the producers of the great musicals of Madrid's Gran Vía are already considering Temporary Employment Regulation Files (ERTE). Stage Entertainment ( The Lion King and Anastasia ) was the first to present it to the Employment Council of the Community of Madrid for not being able to maintain the salaries of more than 300 employees. Another giant in the sector, the production company SOM (responsible for Billy Elliot, La jaula de las locas or West Side Story, among others, and manager of the Rialto, Calderón, Nuevo Apolo and Alcalá) would also be completing an ERTE.

The live music sector will suffer the most, despite its importance: in 2019 some 90,000 live music events were held in Spain, attended by more than 28 million people. From the Independent Phonographic Union (UFI), its president Carla Varona warned that although "the first thing is public health", this "crisis endangers the survival of the sector". "Virtually all concert halls are going to close: the measure of reducing the capacity to a third cannot be fulfilled. If a room of 150 people stays at 50, the numbers do not appear, it is not feasible », agrees Carmen Zapata , manager of the Association of Concert Halls of Catalonia. Something also happens to the central Callao cinemas: although they could open one of their rooms reducing the capacity, they have preferred to close "until the situation returns to normal."

The claims of theaters and concert halls coincide. From both sectors, it is requested that if the rooms with a capacity of less than a thousand people decide to close, it be considered a case of "force majeure" in order not to face the clauses of the contracts and the compensation for annulment, which would lead to millions of losses. The 15-day closure will already entail "brutal economic losses" and more in a sector of "great job insecurity, with intermittent jobs and many self-employed," laments Zapata, in the midst of the crisis cabinet.

Although the Ministry of Culture yesterday canceled the meeting it had planned with theatrical promoters, the sector demands a "real" shock plan with measures such as credits to alleviate the treasury, aid to the non-executed activity and structures, facilitate judicial requirements, modify regulations to not revoke subsidies ... Everything to guarantee the survival of an economically strangled sector.

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