Oliver Belopeta, Skopje Jazz Festival, at the panel discussion “Society in a pandemic, performing arts on the brink of survival” organized by CIVIL said that they remained persistent in the most difficult period in October and November to manage to organize the festival.
“The situation in this area in Europe is not monitored enough, we know little about the regulations in Europe and what they were like this summer, from that aspect I can say that we had the most liberal measures for culture this summer, compared to the whole of Europe, and now in Europe the culture is closed. We have the most liberal measures that I do not intend to criticize. I think that from this aspect of the adoption of summer regulations and indoor events, it has played a significant role to keep culture open to the maximum,” said Belopeta.
“During the summer, all the festivals that were planned were held, the regulations are maximally respected and those indoors events, the experience is such that it is not that inspections do not come, but they really are places with the lowest risk.
The attitude of the City of Skopje, the first action that was in the period when we had curfew, we had concerts, in parks, rooftops, it means sustaining life on a certain stage and we should be honest that it was not just a cultural project in itself, but was intended for a wider group that helped them financially modestly during that period.
The most stringent measures are now found in those countries that have the least problem with the pandemic.
All these things in our country, much more than in Europe, were alive in any way and that is very important, the culture was maximally alive.
The Ministry of Culture has registered about 142 independent artists, I know that there was an idea for this fourth package from the government how to enter them as well, the practical problem is that we do not have records, here we lack solutions from countries like ours that keep records in the long run, these are bigger countries that have a budget with which they can afford it,” Belopeta said.
