Lisbon City Council decided today to support the 10th edition of Rock in Rio, which will take place this year in the Tejo-Trancão Park, by exempting it from paying municipal taxes, to the value of “around three million euros”.
In a private meeting of the municipal executive, the proposal was presented by the councillor for Green Structure, Ângelo Pereira (PSD), and was approved with the casting vote of the mayor in office at the time of the vote, Filipe Anacoreta Correia (CDS-PP), after a tie.
The proposal was made possible by the abstention of the three PS councillors, as there were seven votes in favor from the PSD/CDS-PP leadership and seven votes against from the rest of the opposition, namely three from Cidadãos Por Lisboa (elected by the PS/Livre coalition), two from PCP, one from Livre and one from BE.
Once approved by the executive, the proposal will be submitted to the municipal assembly, a deliberative body of the municipality that will also discuss and vote on the exemption from paying municipal taxes to the organization of the Rock in Rio Lisboa festival, scheduled for June.
A source from the municipality told Lusa that the amount of municipal taxes to be exempted is “around three million euros”, in line with the support given in previous editions.
In October 2023, the organization announced that the next Rock in Rio Lisboa festival, scheduled for June, will move from Parque da Bela Vista to Parque Tejo Trancão, the venue that hosted World Youth Day.
According to the protocol signed in 2019 between the Lisbon City Council and BETTER WORLD – Comunicação, Publicidade e Eventos, S.A., now known as ROCK WORLD LISBOA, S.A., the 10th edition of Rock in Rio Lisboa was initially scheduled to take place in 2022, the same year as the 9th edition, which was scheduled for 2020 but did not take place due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The proposal approved today by the city council maintains the protocol for the 10th edition of Rock in Rio to take place this year and changes the location of the festival, “which will take place in the Tejo-Trancão Park, for reasons related to the dynamization, promotion and dissemination of this new space of the true structure of the city of Lisbon, combined with the fact that this location offers better access”.
“The protocol originally signed has already been approved as to the recognition of exemption from municipal taxes potentially applicable to the editions of the event that are the subject of that same protocol, by virtue of the favorable decision of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly, including the 10th edition,” reads the proposal.
The amounts now calculated “did not exceed” the exemptions provided for in that same deliberative body’s decision, but the executive considered it “appropriate, in view of the time lapse that has passed since the approval and the change in the assumptions that determined the approved exemption due, first and foremost, to the change in location of the event, to submit a new exemption to the Lisbon Municipal Assembly for approval”.
In a statement, the Bloco de Esquerda council considered it “unacceptable” that the city council should approve support of almost three million euros for the organization of Rock in Rio, “taking into account the fees that small businesses have to pay, or even the recent controversy with the payments demanded from the Blocos de Carnaval de Rua, an event open to the population, unlike Rock in Rio.”
“With this millionaire support, approved with the PSD/CDS vote in favour and the PS abstaining, it’s clear that those who make pennies pay fees, those who make millions have exemptions,” criticized the BE, demanding answers on the environmental impact assessment of the festival on the protected ecosystem of the Tagus estuary and on the use of the pedestrian bridge and walkway by the population during the event.
Currently, the council’s executive, which is made up of 17 members, includes seven elected members from the “Novos Tempos” coalition (PSD/CDS-PP/MPT/PPM/Aliança) – the only ones with portfolios – three from the PS, two from the PCP, three from the CPL, one from Livre and one from the BE.
