Update: Mayor Agrees to meet Fuengirola Port Bar Owners over Live Music Issue

The mayor of Fuengirola, Ana Mula, has agreed to meet in person, a representative from each bar on the port of Fuengirola to discuss the ‘burning issue’ of live music in the port.

Fuengirola business owners and staff attended a meeting in the Port on Wednesday. Over 30 business owners and their staff awaited the arrival of just one person from Fuengirola Town Hall to answer their questions. However, and much to the anger and frustration of the assembled crowd, five minutes before the meeting was due to start, a notification was received that the town hall will not attend.

“This has outraged the business owners”, one bar owner said: “The town hall, who said ‘we are here to help you’ and at the last minute are nowhere to be seen, are now demanding that we must go to them at the town hall. We are now in the process of organising a protest to include as much publicity against “discrimination” that Fuengirola Town Hall seems to be giving to our local businesses.”

The ‘face-to-face’ meeting is scheduled on Monday 5.30pm at the town hall, over 50 bar owners are expected to turn up – although conference rooms on the second floor of the building hold a total capacity of around 20 people. Also, due to Covid restrictions, only one representative from each bar will be allowed to attend. The town hall has said however that further meetings could be held to ensure all the business owners ‘have their say’.

As a representative for the EWN, I was present at the original meeting with Rodrigo Morales, head of Culture and Tourism for Fuengirola- a few weeks ago at the town hall. I mentioned to him then that the bar owners will need an answer to their ‘million euro question’ that is on everyone’s mind who is involved and that is: ‘Is the remodelling project for the Port anything to do with the treatment the business owners have received over the last few years’? Another meeting with the town hall is proposed for next Thursday, (the group have a signed letter from the mayor herself), perhaps by then, all be revealed.

A letter received by the bar owners from the port office, relayed from the town hall, read:

‘In order to clarify the situation that is taking place in the Port of Fuengirola related to the possibility of having or not having live music in the establishments of this enclave, I believe it is appropriate to call a meeting in which to personally address this matter. Due to the special health situation in which we find ourselves and the impossibility of all of us meeting at the same time in the same closed place, I invite you to attend this meeting on Monday, September 28, at 5.30pm, in the Royal Hall of the town hall (second floor). Access to one person per establishment will be allowed and a second meeting will be held for the rest of the owners of the port’s bars and restaurants. I wait for you on Monday. A cordial greeting.’

Fuengirola Port on Spain’s Costa del Sol has over the years witnessed a rapid decline in footfall to the marina. This decline in visitors was happening before the current crisis even began. The bar owners feel abandoned by the local town hall. The bars that do try to put on live music are frequently fined, on a few occasions with just background music on. Hopefully, on Monday these questions can be answered, giving some ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for the weary few that are hanging on to salvage what is, in many cases, their only source of income. TW

Please remember to check back on Monday night for a ‘fly on the wall’ report on the proceedings!

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