• Coronavirus. The April Fair also succumbs to the coronavirus: it is suspended and could be held in September
  • Economic crisis. 'Crack' and emotional shock in Seville after the suspension of Easter due to the coronavirus

Seville dismantles the Fair and renounces organizing "nothing like it" next September, the month to which the April festive day moved. The Seville City Council has agreed this Monday to dismantle the "immediate" facilities erected for the April 2020 Fair , suspended by the state of alarm implemented to stop the coronavirus pandemic.

The consistory will return "immediately" the fees paid by the promoters of the booths of the fairground, as announced by the councilor for Major Holidays, Juan Carlos Cabrera .

According to the councilman, they have agreed "the immediate refund of all the fees paid" by the private parties for the 2020 edition of the April Fair and "the immediate dismantling " of the facilities built in the fairground, whose construction work was suspended from last March 15.

And it is that, although the plenary session of the City Council has approved to move to September 23 the local festive day initially set for April 29 on the occasion of the Fair, with the idea of ​​holding a San Miguel fair if possible, Cabrera has stated that in September "there will be nothing similar" to the April Fair.

"We are going to analyze with the group of political groups the possibility of holding some type of event around the San Miguel festival , provided that the health authorities allow it," said Cabrera, recalling that this idea is aimed at promoting certain "revival of the economy and employment". The design of the cover of the April 2020 Fair will be preserved for the 2021 edition.

The refund of the fees to the booth holders of the April 2020 Fair, after their postponement, implies for the municipal coffers a disbursement of about 1.9 million euros, which is added to the reimbursement of 2.3 million euros to the industrial fairgrounds in charge of setting up the attractions.

The City Council recalled that Seville is in a similar situation to other large cities that have to make decisions in the coming weeks around different festivities that will also cause crowds, such as San Fermín, the Malaga Fair, the Fallas de Valencia or the Colombinas de Huelva and which are planned for the summer months.

A lost season

Meanwhile, the Association of Fair Trade Entrepreneurs of Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla has given up on the 2020 season due to the measures decreed by the state of alarm against the expansion of the coronavirus and has rejected the celebration of the fairs in September because, at its judgment, it would be "incompatible" to hold them at the same time, as long as the situation has normalized.

This has been revealed in statements to Europa Press by the president of the association, Antonio Palacios Hernández , who has recognized the harsh situation the sector is going through, which should have started its season in April.

With the Mairena del Alcor (Seville) fair kicking off, Palacios has estimated that some 20 fairs "are already lost" in the provinces of Cádiz, Córdoba or Seville, including the April Fair in the Spanish capital.

The figure, as calculated by the sector, will increase due to the ignorance of "not knowing when this situation will end", along with the fact that the mass appointments will be "the last" to return. For this reason, the leader of the Association of Fair Trade Entrepreneurs has also rejected the idea of ​​moving the celebration of Andalusian fairs to September.

"It would not be compatible", he explained, "we establish routes from April to October with days that are lost during the dismantling of the structures" and the celebration of the fairs "they will step on each other . " Against this background, the union has given the season for loss and with consequences for its SMEs, with up to 70 employees in some of them.

Regarding the proposals to raise the administrations, the president of the Andalusian Association of Entrepreneurs of Trade has recognized that "we cannot put alternatives until this situation is over." "The Government has never taken us into account ", he has reproached while showing his "hope" that his sector will be taken into account this time. "We are a union without large companies but with many small entrepreneurs. First the sick and then we will talk about our future," he concluded.

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  • Seville
  • Coronavirus
  • April Fair
  • Andalusia

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