Castilla y León cancels the concert in support of the Sierra de la Culebra promoted by Vox, after the artists resign

The solidarity concert to help the recovery of the Sierra de la Culebra, the Zamora area that last summer was the cause of the two biggest fires of the year in Spain, has finally been canceled by the Junta de Castilla y León, governed by PP and Vox.

The regional Executive has buried the initiative after practically all the artists whose performance had been announced resigned from participating after learning that the show was going to cost around 160,000 euros and nothing was going to be collected because the tickets were going to be free .

The Ministry of Culture, in the hands of Vox, has confirmed this Thursday the cancellation of the event that it planned to celebrate on June 3 in Villardeciervos (Zamora).

The groups Fangoria, Marlon, Naïa and Markfeel had been removed from the bill as they considered that the "spirit" of the concert had changed: what was proposed as a way to raise funds for those affected by the fire - which burned some 55,000 hectares and burned claimed the lives of four people—derived in an act of mere tourism promotion.

The concert had been devised and promoted by the leader of Vox in the region, Juan García-Gallardo, vice president of the Junta de Castilla y León.

The event was announced last summer by García-Gallardo as "a great benefit concert with top artists to help those affected by the fire."

But that benefit, finally, was not going to be economic, but only promotional.

The voxist leader specified last week that admission was going to be free and that what he wanted to do was "contribute to the economic, tourist and cultural revitalization" of the area.

Then it was also known that the artists were going to charge and that the calculated cost was 160,000 euros.

This announcement, according to the participating groups, represented a change in the solidarity spirit of the act.

First, the resignation of the Markfeel group from Zamora was announced;

then followed the resignation of the Valladolid rock band Naïa;

finally came the Asturian pop-rock group Marlon's refusal to perform... And the resignation of Fangoria, the group from Alaska, has been the final straw that has put an end to the concert.

“Culture, Tourism and Sport has been forced to suspend the tourist initiative that proposed holding a concert in the Zamora town of Villardeciervos next Saturday, June 3, due to the communication of the resignation by the participating groups Fangoria, Marlon , Naïa and Markfeel”, reads the statement from the council released on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Culture alleges that the event was intended to "support the affected area through culture" and "motivate the tourist revitalization of the towns of the Sierra de la Culebra", but as a "complement, and in no case a substitute, for the various and main aids and actions carried out by the Board in each of its ministries, each within its own areas”.

That is to say, a concert to promote tourism and not for charity.

That conversion of the concert into an act without any collection had generated discomfort among residents and associations in the area.

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Fangoria announced on Wednesday afternoon on their social networks that they would not act. For her part, Naïa had told on her social networks that "a while ago" they were called to participate "in a solidarity event to support those affected by the forest fire most serious of this century”, and added that, “given the change in the initial spirit of the event”, they had decided not to participate.

Likewise, Markfeel explained through his networks that he was disassociating himself "from the 'solidarity concert' in the Sierra de la Culebra" since "it has become something very different from what it aimed to be."

Marlon has even pointed out that what was announced "does not correspond to reality."

In parallel, the association La Culebra No Se Calla and the Mahide City Council have begun preparations for another charity concert to be held in summer, in which the groups will not charge cache and will raise funds with the sale of tickets for those affected by the two large fires that burned part of the Sierra de la Culebra reserve, reports Europa Press.