The Community of Madrid refused permission to hold the Madrid Puro Reggaeton festival less than a day before its celebration, sources from the organization confirmed to this newspaper. The event was scheduled for July 15 and 16 at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium and did not receive a license from the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso due to its security plan, which they will try to correct in the next few hours in order not to not leave the nearly 40,000 people who had purchased their tickets.
The organization announced that it was moving to the Wanda last Wednesday, two days before the start of the festival, planned for months at the Caja Mágica. A forced change with this transfer was that everyone with general admission would go to the stands (nearly 30,000), except for those who had paid for “platinum” and “gold” admission. The problem is that there was no distribution in the stands and the Community of Madrid demanded a more detailed plan for those thousands of people who would hang out in the amphitheater for 10 hours straight. Now, Puro Reggaeton alleges that they did not have time to gather the documentation that was requested of them.
These same sources receive the news with “shock and surprise” because they assure that the stage was set up on the football field of Atlético de Madrid. “It’s incredible that they are doing this at an undeniable historical and cultural event, like the farewell of Latin music legend Daddy Yankee,” the organization lamented Thursday night, since it was the one of the only two concerts that the reggaeton player will give in Europe before retiring.
The organization assures in a statement sent to the press that the festival was “ready” to open its doors at 4.15 p.m. on Friday, that it had the certificate of cultural interest from Madrid City Hall and that it had already paid for the celebration cost to the community. However, as of nine o’clock on Thursday evening, Madrid Puro Reggaeton had yet to notify attendees of the cancellation or make a statement about it on their social media. The only clue was received when the festival website stopped working.
“From this promotion company [Con la música a otra parte 2020 AIE] We cannot understand or accept that the announcement to prevent the celebration of this festival is due to technical problems”, they say, arguing that the Wanda Metropolitano hosts events with the same number of participants or more without “registering incidents or cause safety problems”. of the people”. Indeed, they accuse them of “a manifest lack of will on the part of the Regional Administration for this event to take place” and of asking for “more and more documentation”.
“First thing tomorrow, July 14, we are going to present, at the request of the Community of Madrid, a new improved and expanded security plan, and it will depend on the administration if the festival takes place or, on the contrary, is canceled”, they warn. They also propose to receive the press on Friday morning to prove the inventory and the preparation.
A chaotic festival
Although they point to the Community of Madrid, the festival has given continuous lurches in the previous months. Neither the performers, venue, conditions, or ticket prices were those announced in 2020, when it was first released.
Last-minute changes and poster losses set the tone for an event that Daddy Yankee, Natti Natasha, Morad, Bad Gyal and other street genre banners would find themselves in. For this reason, the Madrid Puro Reggaeton festival had already angered a large part of the participants and recorded Facua’s first consumer complaint.
The Wanda Metropolitano stadium, where everything was ready to open the doors this Friday, was a location announced two days in advance last Wednesday. Until then, he was going to stand in the Caja Mágica. “As you know from other events, in the previous location, we had certain limitations that were going to prevent you from enjoying yourself in the best possible way,” they announced without mentioning what those limitations were and before revealing that they moved to Atlético de Madrid.
The big change was not accompanied by an information display. They also had no plan reflecting dining areas, bars, bathrooms or fire escapes. The only thing Madrid Puro Reggaeton reported was that they did not allow food or drink to be brought in, not even a bottle of water, which cost them a complaint. by consumer organization Facua.
“It is an abusive clause that we have denounced before the Community of Madrid, the Consumer Office of Madrid and Andalusia, since the organizing company has its headquarters in Granada”, declared its president, Rubén Sánchez. “He should be arrested because, as long as he practices this practice, he can be liable to a significant fine,” warned the Facua spokesperson.
A group of participants also created a campaign on Change.org, hours before the cancellation, to request compensation for successive changes in dates, venue and ticket conditions. They threatened to ask for letters of complaint and to file a joint complaint. They also denounced that the festival had removed artists, such as Ptazeta, Jhay Cortez or el Jincho, from the bill without announcing it and that with the changes there were consumers who had lost money.
For this reason, they have also opened an Instagram profile –MadridReggaetonEnfurecido– to legally advise those who request the return of tickets or want to put a claim sheet.