FEATURING VALENCIA, A THREE PART SERIES: (2) The Most Musical Town in Spain Losses Billions to the Deadly DANA
The Valencian music industry has been brutally impacted by the DANA, especially those
businesses located in l’Horta Sud, the comarca that suffered the worst damage.
The double jeopardy of it is that many of them are micro and small
businesses and are therefore doubly vulnerable to
the disaster with very little to fall back on.
–
by Rose Maramba
Flooding of Valencia: Image shows the massive amount of water (dark blue) along the shoreline of the Balearic Sea of eastern Spain. It looks like a large lake separated from the sea by a thin line of vegetated land (bright green), but is flooded coastal plain. A broad band of turquoise within the flooded area is made by sediment pouring from local rivers. The city of Valencia is in gray north of the flooded area. Clouds carrying rain hover over the northeastern corner of the image. Higher clouds are light blue. Lower clouds are white. (Photo: NASA MODIS 31 October 2024, PD)
DANA, the high-altitude isolated depression that released a whole year’s worth of rainfall in just a few hours between 29 and 30 October 2024, devastated various municipalities of the Valencian Autonomous Community with historical levels of flooding, causing more than 200 terrible deaths and multi-billion euros worth of losses.
Impossible to have escaped with just a few superficial scratches in the circumstances, so had the Valencian music industry been brutally impacted by the DANA, especially those businesses located mainly though not exclusively in l’Horta Sud, the comarca that suffered the worst damage. The double jeopardy of it is that many of the companies are micro and small businesses and are therefore doubly vulnerable to the disaster with very little to fall back on. According to the Valencian Institute of Economic Research, 10% of Valencian businesses are in the 13 most severely affected municipalities, most of which are in Horta Sud. Their losses are devastating.
The Valencian music industry’s immediate and most calamitous losses are material losses. The DANA’s torrential rainfall, seething flash floods, and fierce winds ripped up infrastructure and equipment indispensable in staging live events, some beyond repair. Hundreds of loudspeakers, mixing desks, musical instruments, and lighting installations have been destroyed.
So far, more than 30 businesses in Horta Sud dedicated to live music events (sound system companies, suppliers of materials, event promoters. . .) have reported damaged or lost materials worth several millions of euros, according to the Federació Valenciana de la Industria Musical, a federation of more than 60 companies.
Not in the least insignificant vis-à-vis the material and financial losses is the cancellation of nearly 300 live events (festivals and concerts). The over 30 companies involved in the hundreds of canceled concerts and festivals, for November alone, have reported that more than €5million have gone down the drain, along with the €1.7 million direct losses and the €35.2 million in lost sales. The Valencian GDP lost €9.2million. Hundreds of jobs have been destroyed.
Santa Cecilia has posted on its Facebook a list of benefit concerts by Andalusian music conservatories for the Valencian sociedades musicales impacted by DANA. It has recently donated a piano to the Conservatorio de Musica de Chiclana.
As is fully expected, the true extent of the destruction will be much greater, considering that the havoc suffered by enterprises other than the live events – such as music schools, venues for rehearsals, theaters, and auditoriums, recording studios, as well as the very bandas and other musical entities, the freelance musicians themselves and other professionals in the music industry who depend on the ripped places for their livelihood – have not been quantified yet.
Moreover, as BBV Research points out, “the economic effects of this DANA cannot be fully comprehended considering its relationship with global warming.”
“In this sense,” says the communique issued by the Federació Valenciana de la Industria Musical, “the losses that have been reported to date are just the tip of the iceberg.”
Tressets Audio: in business for thirty years. Deals in audiovisual systems and “everything related to live music,” as its webpage asserts. Located south of Horta Sud, in Alegmesi. One of the hardest hit music establishments by the Dana.
The businesses in Horta Sud that early on have declared losses encompass the entire range of jobs in the music sector, from content makers for live events to conservatory owners and the gamut in between.
Then there’s the uncountable human factor, the bad feelings of frustrated, and some bitterly disappointed, ticket holders distressed by the failure of some of the organizers to reimburse them for the canceled concerts. Many of these organizers have a legitimate issue with the insurance companies but in some cases the delay in reimbursement smacks of bad faith on the part of the organizers thereby undermining the trust and togertheness that should prevail in the midst of misfortune.
Still and all, the claim from some quarters that the extent of the destruction was such that it could significantly affect the very future of the industry sounds like a gross exaggeration. To be sure, the short- and even medium-term prospects do not look very bright; the operating capacity of the industry has been stretched too thin. But no force majeure could wipe out the music from Valencia.
Damage control will depend much on the speed with which the equipment is repaired or replaced, and the infrastructure restored to its pre-DANA condition. The authorities should be able to cut the red tape so that the billions of euros coming from the central government, the European Union, and from the Valencian Community’s regional resources, as well as from private donors would reach the legitimate beneficiaries the soonest. Lessons should be learned from the Riada of October 1957.
HELP FROM THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
Meeting room of the Council of Ministers in the Moncloa Palace, seat of the Central Government of Spain
On the first week of November 2024, the Council of Ministers, that is, the collegiate decision-making body of the Government of Spain headed up by the Prime Minister/President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, approved the “IMMEDIATE RESPONSE, RECONSTRUCTION AND RELAUNCHING PLAN FOR THE VALENCIA REGION” to aid the industry, mercantile, service establishments, companies and local councils, as well as households and the self-employed in the 78 Valencian, Castilian-La Mancha and Andalusian municipalities hit by the DANA.
The “Immediate Response” phase is worth €10.6 billion. Yet to be ascertained are the plan and cost of “Reconstruction” of the affected areas. The third package will cover the “Relaunch” phase which will entail “the necessary transformation to adapt the Valencian territory to the climatic emergency.” It “will last as long as necessary to restore normality” to Valencia.
President Pedro Sánchez announces the multi-billion “Immediate Response, Reconstruction and Relaunching Plan for the Valencia Region.
The total amount of direct aid for SMEs and the self-employed with tax addresses in the areas affected by the DANA is pegged at €838 million. A €5,000 grant will go to each of the self-employed, and between €10,000 and €150,000 to companies, depending on their volume of operations. To receive the grants, all the applicants need to do is to provide a bank account number. The grants will be paid out in less than a month to an estimated 65,000 self-employed workers and some 30,000 companies.*
Aid application here .
*Source: “President’s News,” La Moncloa Gobierno de España, 2024.11.5
DONATIONS
People who want to donate in cash or kind should check out the internet, always exercising caution, taking extra time and effort to verify the legitimacy of the sites.
Below are a few sites.
> FEDERACIÓ DE SOCIETATS MUSICALS DE LA COMUNITAT VALENCIANA (fsmcv) – “Ayuda DANA”
> AGENCIA TRIBUTARIA VALENCIANA – GENERALITAT VALENCIANA. Includes info on aid to the self-employed whose place of work has been hit by the DANA: secretariatecnica_avsre@gva.es
> INCENTIVA: “Especial ayuda al sector musica.” Comprehensive info.
>UNIVERSITAT DE VALENCIA: Campaign for post-DANA reconstruction. For the recovery and support of the university community and musical organizations that have been affected by the DANA and suffered material losses with such concrete measures as the restoration of damaged instruments and archives, aid for the continuation of musical activities, and the preservation of the Valencian musical heritage in the affected areas.
See also “Aid funds for affected musicians.”
> SOM VALENCIA Donations
> FILARMONÍA DE MADRID: “Instrumentos para Valencia”. All donations will go into the purchase of musical instruments “for the continuity of the Bandas de Musica affected by the DANA.” Bank account Es02 0128 0229 4501 0006 7553
Images
Featured image (GUIDEPOST collage): Dana destruction/Pacopac, C C BY-SA4.0. Destroyed guitar/DekoArt-Gallery, Pixabay
Quote mark/Oakus53, CCBY-SA4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Flood map/MODIS NASA, 31 October 2024, PD
Council of Ministers meeting room/Pool Moncloa-Fernando Calvo
Conservatorio Elemental Santa Cecilia logo. Fair Use
Tressets Audio. Source: their website. Fair Use.
Som Valencia and Filarmonía de Madrid posters. Fair Use
