Features
Sting Gig Tampers With Balance Of Nature?
Promoter Gay Mercader is already fed up with an argument that has broken out between the Castilla y León local government and a group of leading ecologists over the July 1st
The local authority wanted to stage the show in the beautiful national parkland, but environmental campaigners are saying it should be shifted to an urban center.
“It’s too early for me to say anything because I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m standing here with the papers and the contract in my hand and I have no idea what the outcome will be,” Mercader told Pollstar.
“I’ve represented Sting for many years and I’m just doing my job of looking after his interests,” he added, saying there was no point in him getting involved in an argument between two parties who aren’t known for “reconciling” their opinions.
The irony of the situation, and maybe an embarrassment to the Castilla y León authority, is that it’s putting on the show as part of “Musicians In Nature,” a program organized by regional authorities to promote the green spaces in their area,
Sting, an active campaigner for the environment and co-founder of the Rainforest Foundation charity, looked to be the perfect headline choice.
More than 9,000 tickets have already sold and the event is expected to attract an audience of 12,000, with a generous part of the takings earmarked for the Sierra de Gredos reserve.
“The concept of promoting natural spaces by holding big concerts has nothing to do with the spirit of a national park,” Ecologists In Action spokesman Luis Oviedo reportedly told the Agence France-Presse news service.
“We are asking for the concert venue to be moved to an urban center,” he added, as the EIA’s stance on the protected nature park gained the support of other groups including Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund.
Their collective concern is that Sierra De Gredos, which is about 50 miles northwest of Madrid, is well-known by ornithologists for birds of prey and typical mountain birds, by mammalogists for the two remaining species of the goat-like Spanish ibex and by herpetologists for the Iberian mountain lizard.
The lizards appear to be doing fine and growing up to two-feet long, but the goats are having a harder time of it.
Once there were four subspecies of the Spanish ibex, but one became extinct in the 19th century and a second vanished a couple of years ago.
Apparently, and according to natuurfotografie.be, the last remaining female was killed when a tree fell on her.
The main point of contention between the politicians and ecologists may be because the latter resents seeing the former court recognition for supporting the environment, particularly as it believes some species are becoming extinct through lack of government protection.
– John Gammon