Huge Support For Day Without Music

The Day Without Music that Spanish promoters organised to protest the 21 percent VAT rate on concert tickets May 20 received massive backing from the country’s venues.

Photo: Doctor Music

Spanish promoter Neo Sala is mobbed by journalists outside the Spanish parliament May 20 after the country's Day Without Music.

Barcelona-based promoter Neo Sala, who put forward the idea, told Pollstar that 98 percent of Spain’s clubs and concert halls observed the day of silence. A petition to reinforce the protest against the punitive rate of VAT, which the promoters claim has cost the entertainment industry 40,000 jobs and a 30 percent drop in concert attendance over the last two years, has so far collected more than 240,000 signatures.

“There are international artists who don’t include Spain on their tours or only go to one city,” Sala told leading Spanish paper El Pais.“It’s not worth it for them to come.”

Two years ago, the rate of VAT on concert tickets was increased from 8 percent to 21 percent by Mariano Rajoy’s People’s Party government to help tackle Spain’s economic crisis.

Sala says the campaign the Asociación de Promotores Musicales – the Spanish promoters’ association – has launched against it now has the support of all the opposition parties.