18 months of blackout for fairgrounds – Extremadura News

The fairgrounds say that from the Pilar bridge (October 12) the season ends for them. During the winter months there is a break in activity during which they live on the profits of that campaign and many even request the cessation of activity to reduce expenses in that period until mid-MarchWith the arrival of spring, they return to the streets for the first events on the agenda. María Olmo’s family starts each year with the La Coronada cattle fair, a tradition that she inherited from her parents and is now maintained by her children, the third generation of fairgrounds in the saga. They have two businesses, the Bea burger joint and the El Bigote stand, a local serving pinchos. Her daughter takes charge of the burger joint, between the two children they manage the booth and she helps them with everything they need. The whole family lives and is dedicated to the fairs. “There are four families that depend on this business and we have not worked for almost 19 months. We had our savings, like everyone else, but they have gone and now the situation we have is very oppressive, “he acknowledges.

The day the state of alarm was decreed, their children had everything set up to start the campaign in La Coronada and his daughter was getting ready to start in La Haba. Fifteen days before he had paid 40,000 euros in a new trailer and wanted to make the investment profitable as soon as possible. But the pandemic stopped everything in its tracks and now the brand-new trailer is with the rest of the vehicles in a rented warehouse that they pay when and how they can. “The owner helped us during the confinement, but he has that as a business and it is understandable,” says Olmo. During the last year his children have been working in what was available, whether it was the field or the hotel industry and they have also received help from the Red Cross with food. “But it is not just about filling the fridge, we have mortgages like everyone else, insurance, supplies … we need to work,” acknowledges the businesswoman.

Lifeguard in the truck

Javier Naranjo did not think about it when he saw that the confinement threatened to destroy the entire 2020 campaign: “I have two children and a mortgage like everyone else, so when I saw that this was going to last, I got on the truck. And here I will continue until we can return to our business ”, says this Badajoz showman who rides the Naranjo crash car tracks (well known throughout the region) and also lifts the largest wheels in Spain. He is hopeful this summer if the municipalities decide to bet on finding a way to hold “safe” fairs and give them a break, although he fears on the other hand that moment when they have to rehire insurance, check vehicles and prepare to start.

«Only in the circulation taxes are 3,000 euros. I need to have at least 6,000 to start, but as a truck driver it gives me to live, nothing more, “he acknowledges. That is why on more than one occasion in the last year he has considered that if the possibility arose, he would be willing to change his life: “the problem is that nobody is going to buy this now. The fairs are stopped all over the world. My business is worth nothing right now, “he laments.

In Extremadura there are around 1,500 families that are dedicated to the different businesses that are set up in the fairs, from attractions to hospitality or game booths. They are usually a closed nucleus in which everyone knows each other and also helps each other in the event of breakdowns or accidents. “The problem is that now we are all equally bad,” says Rosa Morgado, spokesperson for the fairgrounds in the province of Badajoz. “No employer can last 18 months without working and facing loans, mortgages and rents. Behind the lights of the fair there are many families who are having a bad time “, he points out and points out one of the problems they have to access a job outside the fair:” we have no experience in anything other than our business. ” Even so, his children, all linked to the world of the fair, have been working “on everything that came out” and one of them is considering running for the Civil Guard. Her husband has also been behind the wheel of a truck at age 61 to ensure a monthly income, but all her life she is now locked in a ship, she says.

Back to activity

The complicated situation and doubts about its future have united the sector, which is promoting concentrations together with others affected such as orchestras and circuses. They started this Friday in Badajoz and this week they will also take place in Cáceres (22), Mérida (23) and Plasencia (24).
Two weeks ago the fairgrounds also met with the Junta de Extremadura to ask for a formula that allows them to resume the activity safely. At the moment the only measure that has been taken is to evaluate the proposal they have launched to celebrate them with a closed circuit and capacity controls, and the creation of a work table to define the model, as confirmed by the Ministry of Health. “We are aware that the fairs may not be like before, but it is the city council that will have the last word,” says Morgado, who participated in these meetings.

But the situation that many families describe is one of anguish. We don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. Last year we were teased because they told us we could work and it has been a blank year. The situation of all the families is disastrous “, laments Antonio Martínez, spokesman for the fairgrounds in Cáceres and a member of another of the families that make a living from this activity:” before the pandemic began, my brother-in-law bought a Ferris wheel that cost a million euros and I had to fire a worker who had been with me for 11 years. When we want to start we will not have qualified people to ride the attractions, “he says.

At least in his case, he does have the aid for the cessation of activity, but not even that other colleagues, because many cancel the business in the months that they do not work and the pandemic caught them in the middle of the winter break. “We are completely unemployed and most do not have any help and have not even received the payment of the 1,700 euros of the specific line that the Board called for this activity.” “We are forgotten,” he laments.

To the limit

«I just want to be able to start working now. Because you see that your children (he has five small children) have always led a good life and that now if their tracksuit breaks, you can’t buy another one, ”cries Antonio García Marcos, Rena’s fair market. He runs the Marisol burger joint with his wife. On the other end of the phone, he recounts his anguish: «We don’t charge anything, so we live on the help of Caritas and the Red Cross and on what my grandparents or my mother can give us from their pension. But I have paralyzed the mortgages of the ships and the house, and in the bank they are already warning me that they cannot be retained any longer. In the last year he has looked for work with little fortune “because I only have experience at the fair” and he entrusts himself that the summer allows him to earn a living again: “I have never experienced anything like this.”

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