Jesús Machín criticizes the Craft Fair and the pilgrimage not coinciding: "They are not going to go bankrupt"

Jesús Machín criticizes the Craft Fair and the pilgrimage not coinciding: "They are not going to go bankrupt"

The mayor of Tinajo has attributed the Cabildo's decision to an economic issue and believes that the fair should be extended. The councilor assures that it has been decided this way at the request of the artisans. "I will have to ask them one by one," Machín distrusted...

August 22 2016 (08:25 WEST)
Jesús Machín criticizes the fact that the Craft Fair and the pilgrimage do not coincide: They are not going to be ruined
Jesús Machín criticizes the fact that the Craft Fair and the pilgrimage do not coincide: They are not going to be ruined

The Mancha Blanca Craft Fair and the Los Dolores pilgrimage will not coincide this year. This fact has not pleased the mayor of Tinajo, Jesús Machín, who this Thursday reproached the Cabildo for this decision. In his opinion, the artisans would be "happier" if this were the case, because "they would sell more things." The Councilor for Industry of the Cabildo, who this year organizes the fair together with the Councilor for Culture, however, assures that the decision has been made precisely because the artisans have requested it.

"I will have to ask them one by one," Jesús Machín distrusted in this regard on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero. According to the mayor, this will be "the first time" that the two events do not coincide in time. The pilgrimage is scheduled for September 10, but the fair does not begin until the 14th, and will last until the 18th. Machín has been in favor of the fair lasting longer and starting a few days earlier so that both things overlap. "Because it is 7 days, when the majority of the artisans are from Lanzarote, I don't think anything happens," he said.

The mayor attributes the Cabildo's decision to a monetary issue. "The Cabildo seems to go bankrupt if it does more days," he said, alluding to the lodging expenses of the artisans who come from other islands. Although he has admitted that he has not spoken with the artisans, he is convinced that they would be "happier" if "they are paid for lodging two or three days more." "And the people of Lanzarote, I am sure that if instead of 4 or 5 days they are 8 days, they will be happier too," he added.

"But well, I respect the decisions because unfortunately whoever has them in the Craft Fair is the Cabildo of Lanzarote," he added later. According to what he explained, the councilor in charge of the area proposed those changes of dates in the fair so that the two events coincided in the meeting that the Cabildo and the City Council held, but from the Island Corporation they replied that this is not the desire of the artisans. Regarding the possibility of changing the dates of the pilgrimage, Machín has indicated that there is an "agreement" with the Diocese of the Canary Islands by which the pilgrimages of Teror and Betancuria are celebrated first and then that of Los Dolores. Therefore, it could not be modified. "We cannot step on each other, we have a twinning with Teror, with Betancuria... and we have to respect it."

 

"Artisans do not go to a fair to set up a party, they go to work"


The Councilor for Industry and Commerce of the Cabildo, Ariagona González, answered the mayor minutes later, also on Radio Lanzarote. "This was a decision made with the artisan sector. They ask us to take into account a series of considerations that are important to them. And it is important for them that the fair is a fair and not a pilgrimage," she said in this regard.

According to what she explained, one of the demands of the sector is that the fair has "more access", something that, on the contrary, decreases with the pilgrimage. "We must take into account that there are many people who walk on the day of the pilgrimage, during all the festivities, and we have many accesses to the roads closed, which makes it difficult for the public to arrive by car. It is a demand from them, who see themselves there and see that the influx does not reach them," she explained, while defending that artisans need that public to "be able to have sales and live from crafts."

According to what she said, for the Corporation the money would be "the least of it." "The Cabildo of Lanzarote, if its artisans want and if the feeling on the island is that the fair lasts longer, then it assumes the expense just as it has assumed it until now. But another thing that the artisans tell us is that it is an effort for them to move to the fair for a whole week and be there from 11 in the morning to 10 at night. It's many days." "We have to be clear about this: artisans do not go to a craft fair to set up a party, neither for the City Council of Tinajo, nor for that of San Bartolomé, nor for that of Arrecife, for any of them. Artisans go to work," González added.

Thus, the councilor has defended that "what the Cabildo is trying to do is improve the reality that we have." "The craft fair is still linked to the Los Dolores festivities, it coincides with the day of Los Dolores, we are going to have better traffic access because it is going to be less congested and I think it is a good opportunity for all citizens to enjoy the fair and for all the tourism that exists to be able to visit it," she concluded.

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