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EVENTS: SAVE THE DIRECT!

Except exceptional events, pubs and bars of small capacity, those who do not have dressing rooms and stage, can not organize concerts in Andalusia (and elsewhere). I'm not talking about volume, scheduling, soundproofing, licensing, capacity, safety measures, of those things that would interest people ... I'm saying it's impossible that a bar can get a license to organize concerts. A "bar music" can play music "canned" with a decibel limit. But the music has to be prerecorded, can not be someone with an acoustic guitar, we are not people go out of hand. In fact, it is also impossible organize a bar other than to show pre-recorded music and serve intoxicating beverages. In a bar there can be storytellers, mimes, monologues, performances by comedians, small pieces of theater, shadow puppetry, juggling, performance ... You can not do those things if you do not have the proper license. And there is no appropriate license.

The problem stems from the List and Catalog Shows of Andalusia, a text which attempts to list all possible events and places where they can be. Personally, I am opposed to this technical standard. Trying to confine the art in a cage to get it well controlled is a foolish endeavor, because art often ends up being precisely what was left out of the cage. I think it would have been better just worry about the problems that artistic activity can lead to people (such as "noise") and stop trying to regulate the imagination, which blows where it pleases. But today is what we have. And the truth is that the catalog does not include something as standard in our society as the concerts in bars.

Of course, really implement this absolute prohibition is untenable. For many musicians and artists, constituted a direct means of subsistence that they are being starving and here we are touching the stomach of hard workers and, therefore, a matter of importance. Many other professionals today are more fitted and do not need to play in small bars, got where they are because "they took tables" somewhere and no one goes directly from the garage of his home at the Royal Albert Hall , the "quarry" has to be somewhere. Many other professionals are not nor ever will be, we are amateurs, c'est à dire , people who love music and you need to share with others the music that comes from these caresses, just as "soccer "League is not only professional but also kids playing on the field in the neighborhood under the eyes of their relatives and anyone who passes by and is interested in the matter, "culture" is not made only of grandeur, but also small feats of people walk that "grew" their creativity. Moreover, many small employers are concerned to organize things "cultural", they believe that their work must not only serve intoxicants, but also want intoxicated culture, music and beauty, poisons that affect the soul, but leave the healthy liver. Finally, many people need (need) this type of events that are cheaper, produce an environment generate more intimate kind of relationship between people who are different from the most popular concert (and sometimes even allow the exchange and collaboration among musicians so relaxed).

law forbids it, but still exists. This pattern is very common in Spain: the standard is "too" restrictive but not really enforced. In this context, the objective parameters disappear allowing widespread expectations and is only arbitrary and stark reality of power. You can play or not depending on whether Venus is aligned with Mars, the fever that gets at the local authorities, on how well you take with your neighbors, politicians or the police, your relations with the powerful. But also the thing can be confusing. Local Police suspended concerts organized by the City or paralyzed events no one has complained. Sometimes the police storm in the afternoon in a guitar class or in a trial before it starts because someone has been entering a person in a bar with a guitar case (!) There are bars and there are damned unfairness. Prejudices arise on how to dress or social groups that allegedly like this or that music. A huge legal chaos in the service of the inconsistencies of power. Can not be discussed objectively on items such as volume, timing, or soundproofing. If you do not have a license, and you can not have it, I can crack. But what I do when I want, or when it suits me.

In line with these problems arose Save the Live platform. Our platform does not claim the right to harass, or asks that musicians can do whatever we want. Just ask the regularization of a well-established activity and very necessary and, this implies that the activity is reasonable and any regulations governing the imposition of limits implies. For example, if possible to take a license to "bar with live music, the authorities could control these bars duly complied with the requirements of sound insulation. It is a game of "zero sum" in which some win and others lose, everyone involved can gain decent rules.

On Tuesday some members of this platform, brokering and Andalusian parliamentary support for IU, Ignacio Garcia, met with the Director General of Entertainment and part of his team. We believe that the meeting was fruitful and that there is a willingness to change the catalog and incorporate a more reasonable regulation that balances the various interests at stake. Of course, the change is not yet done so and the process can take awhile. It's time to go gathering support to demonstrate that we are four crazy with ideas rare, but there really is a social demand to attend.

Just do not have to think that the problems of live music will end if we achieve this claim. It is simply that at least have a level playing minimum to be observed. With that, I think we will have won a lot but not everything that is needed.