“A very ambitious plan.” This is how he defined the Divertia manager, Lara Martínez, the package of measures who has designed the Gijón City Council to alleviate the consequences of the health crisis of COVID-19 at cultural sector from the city. A sector that, Martínez recalls, “is already vulnerable in itself. Hence the consistory has wanted “shield the culture budget“which is distributed between Divertia, the Foundation (FMC) and the department of the area,” ensuring that the items intended for culture are maintained although the situation has now changed due to the coronavirus. “
As already committed to this exercise, it would be necessary to add two million euros planned for the rest of 2020 and three million more for 2021 if the remnant can finally be used. In total they are thirty measures that go through grants for the creation of cultural companies, reinforcement for existing ones or specific plans and programs that go through the recovery of programming and attracting the public.
For it, from Divertia they work with three scenarios: A, which would be that of normality prior to the coronavirus, a scenario B in which “if people cannot go to the Theater, it will be the Theater (Jovellanos) that takes to the streets” and scenario C that “would be an apocalyptic situation in which I could not get out.”
Scenario B is the one in which the newly created program ‘Gijón under the curtain’ for which spaces are already being defined and which will be coordinated with Celebrations. “It will be similar to ‘Arte en la calle’ but with professional companies and artists and formats of more than 400 people outdoors, seated and with the established separation.”
Divertia is also working to ensure that the Music has its “space legally inside and outside”. The Principality Entertainment Law that prevents live music in bars continues to be a stumbling block to its development. “We believe that this problem must be urgently addressed so that it can be solved at once and the music can develop in its natural place, which is the entertainment venues and bars. “
On the night of the fires, Martínez has declared that “drones as an alternative to pyrotechnics would be a very new project and Gijón the first place in Spain where it was done, but it would not solve the problem of the crowd of people on the beach. We have more options on the table and we will soon specify. “
Regarding the Gijón International Film Festival, whose celebration will be in November, Lara Martínez feels more optimistic. “In response to the words of the President of the Principality in the face of de-escalation, when November arrives we hope to be close to normal and that the Festival can be held almost as always.” However, also for the film competition they are proposing other possible formats such as the formula of the drive-in or the streaming.
Divertia’s manager, Lara Martínez, understand the criticism of the lack of concreteness on the part of the Government, but remarks that “All the measures have a theoretical support and an economic support. They are not smoke. It is a perfectly worked and studied plan” has said in SER Gijón.
The crash plan adds one more measure, the reservation of between fifteen or twenty places for the cultural sector of the hundred in total that includes the extraordinary Employment Plan announced by the local government.
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