The organizers of events canceled during an emergency will be reimbursed 80% of the ticket value / Article / LSM.lv

On 1 December, the government decided to support a proposal by the Ministry of Culture (CM) to reimburse 80% of the value of tickets to all organizers of public events, including cultural events, regardless of their legal status, for events canceled and reimbursed to viewers during the Covid-19 emergency. , informed Lita Kokale, Head of the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Culture. To receive compensation, event organizers will have to apply to the State Cultural Capital Fund (SCCF).

The Ministry of Culture explained that the event organizers plan to earn an average of 5% to 20% of the ticket price, so the cultural event ticket compensation is planned to be 80% of the total ticket reimbursed to spectators (which is the event organizers’ direct and only revenue) and ticket reversal costs.

Compensation will be paid for the canceled measures that were planned during the Covid-19 emergency –

from 9 November to 6 December this year, as well as in subsequent periods when the government will decide to ban public events.

In order to receive support, the organizer of the canceled event will have to submit to the SCCF supporting documents proving the refund of tickets to the spectators – a report issued by the ticket distributor to the event organizer on the ticket reversal (box office or automatic e-purchases) the payment order of the organizer’s bank, in which the organizer has reimbursed the ticket to the viewer, indicating in the payment the name of the event, date and number of tickets, additionally taking into account bank transaction payments for revisions, if tickets are traded without ticket distribution networks.

By identifying the information provided by the ticket distribution networks on the tickets purchased in their systems for cultural events between 9 November and 6 December, the support measure requires funding of approximately EUR 1 083 481.

Support will be provided in 2021 through a redeployment of appropriations from the Latvian School Bag program.

The Ministry of Culture emphasized that statistics show that the annual turnover of the public event ticket sector is about 45 million euros, of which in the last years without the presence of Covid-19 the November-December period is about 25-30% or up to 15 million euros. In turn, in 2020, in the same period, the ticket turnover has not even reached the threshold of 2 million euros or only 10% of the November-December revenue of previous years, although the organizers have already invested in the preparation of events, taking into account previous periods and audience requests.

The MoC also pointed out that the cultural sector was most directly affected by the Covid-19 emergency. Compared to 2019, the average turnover of economic activities of Latvian companies involved in the organization of cultural events has decreased by 85-95%. As a result of the emergency declared on 12 March 2020, advance ticket sales have decreased significantly. Overall, the number of event tickets sold has fallen at least fivefold since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and revenue has fallen even more.

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