July 18, 2021 - The music festival and concert industry has been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, and in order to help the organizers, the Ministry of Culture has decided to co-finance rapid antigen tests in cooperation with the Croatian Music Union.

According to Goran Rihelj from HrTurizam.hr, the Ministry of Culture has decided that, in cooperation with the Croatian Music Union (HGU), it will co-finance the costs of rapid antigen tests with HRK 5,000,000 for the purpose of conducting concert activities of interest to the Republic of Croatia. The profession welcomes such measures and says it will continue to work on business models that preserve health and the economy.

"Due to the new conditions of the event, paying for tests for visitors is a new cost that sometimes spills over to visitors, and sometimes to the organizers. Therefore, the help of co-financing rapid antigen tests announced by the Ministry of Culture is more than welcome ", said the President of the HGK Event Industry Association Boris Kovaček, adding that the industry expects further work on ways to safely implement events.

Tomo in der Mühlen, president of the Association of Creative and Cultural Industries of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, agrees, saying that entrepreneurs in the industry support all aid measures because it is extremely important that the event industry works. "We must constantly work on improving the models according to which we can better organize controlled events. That's the only way. Otherwise, if we do not develop a model of how we can do this and disable work, we will end up in a situation where some exceptions, where the organizers do not respect the measures, become more common, and no one in the industry wants that, events are a great motivation and incentive for young people to be vaccinated.

The ministry defined concert programs of interest to the Republic of Croatia as those with more than half the participation of Croatian performers, continuous and confirmed presence in the cultural life of the country, high level of quality, intended for different age profiles of the audience. Co-financing is carried out in the form of grants, up to 50 kuna per conducted antigen test of visitors.

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