Spending spree on festivals, says GSD

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 Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - 09:40

In four days of massive pre-electoral pharaonic excess the GSLP Government will spend over £5 Million of your money on music and entertainment, says the GSD.

Just weeks away from BREXIT the Government is to beat all previous cost outlays on previous events by having massively high cost acts at the Gibraltar Calling music festival, followed by Andrea Bocelli on Monday 9 September and supporting the performance of David Guetta and Becky G on National Day. There are then a range of expensive support services and expenses for all these acts. 

Information received by the GSD is that some of these acts will charge a fee of between £500,000 to £1Million to perform in Gibraltar.

SPECTACULAR

The presence of David Guetta is particularly spectacular when a top DJ could be contracted for a small proportion of the cost that will be paid for getting him to come to Gibraltar. David Guetta is one of the highest earning DJs on the planet, taking home millions of pounds in earnings every year. His announcement as headline artist for the National Day Monkey Rocks Festivals represents a massive step up from artists that have performed at previous editions of the and begs the question – is the tax payer footing the bill?

GSD call on Government to set out in precise detail how much tax-payers money is being used in support of the Gibraltar Calling event and the Monkey Rocks Festival. The last edition of the Monkey Rocks festival saw a wave of public concern in respect of drugs issues, excessive alcohol consumption and violence. There were a number of drugs related arrests at the entrance of last year’s event. The Government itself recognised the concern and has wanted to rebrand it as a “family-friendly” event. It has stated it will provide funding for additional security. It should confirm how much money it is providing organisers of Monkey Rocks.

A statement adds: The Chief Minister had already said this year’s Gibraltar Calling music festival would likely cost around £3.5 Million and does not include the Bocelli concert or any direct or indirect funding provided to Monkey Rocks. It is obvious that the costs will far exceed the costs spent on any other year.

PRIORITIES

GSD Leader Keith Azopardi said: “when we are a few weeks away from a possible no deal Brexit it is quite irresponsible for the Government to be committing around £5M in four days of festivals. We should be building up our resources and a war chest in case we need it after 31 October. This is a Government that has completely lost its way on handling your money or in priorities of how to use it. There will be big financial losses at all these events which in the run up to BREXIT makes no sense at all.”

After announcing with great fanfare that MTV would be behind the music festival that “brand” has almost disappeared from the marketing of this year’s event. The dropping of the MTV name follows the 2018 edition which was widely considered to have had the lowest attendance in the festival’s history, and television ratings showing negligible or nonexistent viewing figures. The fall in sales, the poor viewing figures, and ultimately the dropping of MTV as a presenting brand entirely, shows that the entire episode has been an expensive failure, ends the GSD statement.

04-09-2019 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR