QCOSTARICA – The organizer of the “Summer Fest” event, scheduled for today, Saturday, April 24 in Cartago, assured on Friday that it had canceled the activity, among other reasons, due to the severity of the pandemic.
The organizer, who identifies himself publicly as Juan Torres, indicated that he made the decision because he considered the concentration of people inappropriate, for public health reasons.
Also, he pointed out, it was due to eventual legal problems for Toledo, his guest artist.
Since the declaration of a health emergency at the beginning of 2020, the Ministry of Health prohibited the holding of massive events, such as concerts and mega-parties, due to the risk of transmission of the covid-19.
“I cannot think only of my economic state and those of us who are going to lose money, I must analyze the consequences that those 200 people that we had expected could generate,” declared Torres.
He stated that he was in the process of returning the money for 100 tickets that had already been sold.
According to the organizer, who says he has held the activity for four years, the event was going to take place in El Tejar (canton of El Guarco) from 2 pm to 10 pm, respecting sanitary and distancing measures.
“It was just that singer Toledo and five local DJs, the vast majority students from Cartago, whose income from this activity finances studies, transportation and food. However, in the end it is best not to do it,” he declared.
Despite the decision to cancel, Torres defended the activity, since he considers his – and as well as other people involved – interest to earn income legitimately.
He also claimed that if bars and restaurants can operate, he could also, following the guidelines imposed by Health.
However, he complained about the difficulties in obtaining permits, because the answers are slow in coming, and that nullified his ability to plan with the artists.
Torres admitted that the criticism around the “Summer Party” also weighed on the decision to cancel.
“They never contacted us to find out what we were going to do and how. Why didn’t anyone ask us? All recriminations, we feel they were malicious. We only try to work with the rules that exist for others; no one thought of coming to ask us,” he said.
He denied that the guests to the event would be contacted two hours before to attend, as affirmed this Friday by representatives of the Paraíso Local Emergency Committee, where it was supposed to take place.
On Instagram and Facebook the promoter of the party, which the authorities had in their sights on, also confirmed the cancellation of the event.
On Friday, the Fuerza Publica (National Police), the Ministry of Health and the Paraíso Local Emergency Commission were vigilant to find the organizers of the mega-party, which they convened through social networks.
Authorities have issue warnings against these types of activities due to the danger of massive infections, mainly at a time when the country faces a peak in cases resulting from people’s carelessness and the presence of variants of the virus that would be more easily transmissible.
On Thursday, since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the highest number of daily infected was registered, 1,776. On Friday, the second-highest number of daily infections, 1,656, the highest number of people in intensive care units (ICU), 286, was reported.
