There are no excuses not to visit your favorite bookstore or record store; spend an afternoon at the theater or cinema, or go to a concert. The Barcelona City Council has relaunched the Culture Bonus, with the aim of subsidizing a part of cultural purchases made in the city and encouraging the reactivation of the sector.
After the success of the first edition, with some 96,000 Culture Bonuses sold and an impact on the sector of about four million euros, the council has decided to re-edit this initiative, refining it to adapt more precisely to the needs of the different cultural agents. It has been able to do so thanks to the collaboration of the Associació d'Empreses de Teatre de Catalunya (ADETCA), l'Associació de Sales de Concerts de Catalunya (ASACC), the Cambra del Llibre de Catalunya, the Gremi de Llibreters de Catalunya, the Gremi de Cinemes de Catalunya and the TresC Comunitat de Cultura.
From April 1 and throughout 2021, the new Culture Bonuses can be purchased, which will represent an investment of one million euros by the council and is expected to double the figure sold in the first edition. There is more than one novelty. Firstly, there will be two modalities available: either spend 20 euros or 40. In the first edition, only the second option could be chosen.
This change has been made thinking of cultural activities such as cinema or bookstores, with lower tickets than those for concerts or theater. With this new modality, it is expected to encourage the purchase of books or cinema tickets, making the citizen spend 15 euros and the City Council put in five more. In the 40-euro Culture Bonus, the user will pay 30 euros and the council will put in the rest. In neither of the two cases are management fees included, which the citizen pays and are 0.5 and 1 euro, respectively.
As of today, almost 200 establishments have joined this initiativeAnother novelty of the Culture Bonus will be that this time it will be possible to buy directly on the websites of the establishments themselvesadhered to the initiative. As in the previous edition, it can also be done on the website enabled by the City Council.
As of today, almost 200 establishments have joined this initiative. The list includes cinemas such as Yelmo, Verdi, Cinesa or Renoir Floridablanca; bookstores such as La Central, Laie, Altaïr, FNAC —here you can also buy records—, Abacus, Casa del Libro, Documenta or Alibri; theaters such as La Villarroel, Tivolí, Romea, Sala Beckett, Barts —this Parallel venue also hosts concerts— or SAT! Sant Andreu Teatre, and concerts at Apolo, Palau de la Música, Liceo or those organized by the promoter The Project.
As in the first edition, you can buy as many Culture Bonuses as you want per person and there is no limit to using more than one in the same purchase. If the purchase value is greater than 20 or 40 euros, the user will have to pay the difference, while if it is less, the establishment will give them a voucher for the difference.
Sant Jordi, an opportunity to debut the Culture Bonus
April 23 is presented as a good date to debut the new Culture Bonus. After a year without the usual Sant Jordi, with a small celebration in summer, the City Council's initiative wants to contribute to boosting sales. "We think it can have an excellent repercussion because Sant Jordi's day is a day when everyone feels, fortunately, almost obliged to buy a book," said the Councilor for Tourism and Creative Industries, Xavier Marcé.
With the new 20-euro modality, the consistory hopes to encourage the purchase of books for Sant Jordi and the rest of the days of the year. In fact, spending on books only represented 10% of the 2020 Culture Bonuses. Theater was the big winner, with 87% of sales, and concerts were at the other extreme, with 3%, although it must be taken into account that they have been one of the cultural activities most affected by restrictions.