PSOE describes Benidorm's cultural programme as "ridiculous"

Under the government of Toni Pérez, Benidorm’s cultural programme is reduced to the bare minimum month after month. A clear example is the publication of ‘Benidorm Cultural’ offer for May and June, a single page in which only 20 activities appear for these two months. The socialist spokesperson, Cristina Escoda, has described the cultural offer that the city offers to residents and tourists as “ridiculous”, and has asked the councillor for the department, Jaime Jesús Pérez, for explanations for his “inability” to launch “an ambitious cultural agenda that includes all kinds of activities and performances of the level that Benidorm deserves”. “The worst thing is how the councillor boasts about the meagre cultural programme. You should take a walk around the region and see with envy what other municipalities do with much less budget”, she pointed out.

Escoda also criticised the fact that, in addition to the limited cultural offering, they are going to charge for certain shows that take place in municipal spaces that are not even well acoustically conditioned. Specifically, she criticised the fact that the Government team has approved public prices for tickets to the performances of the second ‘Theatre Show’ that is being held in the auditorium of the Cultural Centre. An auditorium, the spokesperson recalled, that does not have a stage box necessary to solve the sound problems that have given rise to numerous complaints and that have not been corrected even with external megaphones. “We have been asking about this issue for months without getting a response. The 700,000 euros budgeted for the stage box were spent on works and it seems that there is no intention of solving the problem”, she said.

Finally, the socialist leader has praised local groups and associations that “are those that almost exclusively support the cultural programme with high-level performances”, and has regretted that the conferences organised by Trobada d'Escoles en Valencià, which will be held in Benidorm on 25 May, have been omitted from ‘Benidorm Cultural’.