The City Council will maintain the Fair without a local holiday and will not replace it

The current model of the Mérida Fair, without its own holiday during the week, has been consolidated and is immovable in the opinion of the municipal delegate Ana Aragoneses.

They withdrew it when they came to the government to relaunch the Carnivals. Now they have the possibility of returning it since Shrove Tuesday has been decreed by the Board for the entire region. The delegate completely ruled out that option yesterday. “The success of the public that this year’s Fair has had leaves that debate behind,” said Aragoneses.

The government team believes that the Fair is counterproductive because many take the opportunity to go on a long weekend. Which means that there are fewer people in the city and, therefore, less public in the programming and in the fairgrounds.

They insist that they use the two dates they have to choose to generate economic activity and consumption in Mérida. And not in Conil or Puerto de Santa María, as the mayor compared in his day. Before his arrival at City Hall, the calendar was backwards. Festive in the Fair and not in the Carnivals (that of the Martyr on December 10 is unquestionable).

It has been an ongoing debate in the city for decades. Even Ángel Calle tried a popular consultation in 2007 so that the neighbors could choose if they wanted their holiday on Shrove Tuesday or at the Fair. He even officially called it, but a complaint from the PP for considering it irregular prevented it from being held. They accused him after dodging his responsibility and he did not raise the debate again. He kept Shrove Tuesday.

Ana Aragoneses yesterday defended the management of this matter by the current government team. In her opinion, in the model that these seven years have followed, they have managed to relaunch Carnival by establishing a festival (it will opt for Regional Tourist Interest) and also the Fair because it works better without it.

The balance she made yesterday is the best guarantee for the delegate that the current model works and has been consolidated. That is why she cleared yesterday any attempt to revive the holiday. The Fair, she said, will continue as before because it has been proven that it does not need it.

He announced that in the coming weeks they will announce the decision on the chosen date.

Emerita Lvdica has many possibilities. This option was already discussed in the last edition, which was very successful with the public and with more recreationists than ever involved in the organization of the event. Emerita Lvdica is perceived by the City Council as the party with the most projection and the one that can grow the most in Mérida. In the oven is the file for Tourism to pass judgment and say if it deserves the recognition of Festival of Regional Tourist Interest. In June, after the balance of the last edition, some recreationists proposed putting a local holiday on Emerita Lvdica to definitively relaunch it.

But there are those who fear that it will be counterproductive because many of those who participate now will not do so if they have a bank holiday in June. The same argument for not giving it to the Fair can also be used for not putting it in Emerita Lvdica. Ana Aragoneses said yesterday that the only criterion that will guide them will be to set a date that benefits the local economy.