La Jornada – UK is spending $ 550 million to reopen the cultural sector

London. The British government has announced that it will spend about 400 million pounds (470 million euros, 550 million dollars) to reopen 2,700 cultural organizations affected by the blockade imposed by the epidemic, such as the Glastonbury Festival.

The Ministry of Culture said in a statement that this aid comes from the Cultural Protection Fund, which was urgently mobilized by the government for the cultural sector and is valued at 1,570 million pounds (1,850 million euros, 2,117 million dollars).

Culture Minister Oliver Dowden confirmed that this fund has already helped “thousands of cultural heritage preservation organizations across the country to survive the biggest crisis they have faced”.

He added, “We are now on their side and they are preparing to welcome the public again.”

According to the government’s roadmap to get out of confinement, museums, theaters and cinemas will not reopen until May 17 at the earliest.

New aid recipients include the National Football Museum in Manchester, the London Transport Museum, independent cinemas and the Glastonbury Festival.

The festival has been canceled for the second year in a row due to the pandemic, but the organizers announced a major concert on May 22, without an audience but live broadcast, with several performers such as Coldplay.

Damon Albarn, Gurga Smith, Heim Wolf Alice and Michael Kiwanuka will be others who will participate in this hypothetical five-hour show, recorded at the location where this festival is usually held in southwest England, and which usually receives more than 200,000. People.

Cultural venues are closed in the United Kingdom. The country, hit hard by the epidemic with nearly 127,000 deaths, began gradually emerging from months of restrictions in March, after a drop in the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths thanks to confinement and a vaccination campaign.