"Madrid does not turn off," said the regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, a few days ago, challenging the energy measures of the Government of Pedro Sánchez. Some measures that she announced that she would take to the Constitutional Court and that, she affirmed, "generate insecurity and scare away tourism and consumption" and, she concluded, "causes darkness, poverty, sadness." However, the Madrid City Council has just announced that it is postponing the second edition of its major international lighting art festival, LuzMadrid, to 2023 due to the current context of the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.
"Due to the current context of the energy crisis, the Madrid City Council has decided to postpone the celebration of the second edition of the International Light Festival, LuzMadrid, for another year. The festival, which was scheduled to take place from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 October, moves its celebration to 2023 in the hope of having a more stable situation in terms of the energy context," announces the statement from the City Council of the Spanish capital.
LuzMadrid, remember, in its first edition was recognized with the A Greener Festival international sustainability award, an accreditation that endorses good environmental practices in festivals and to which the main European festivals choose each year, and has been committed to the environment since its inception, optimizing energy consumption to achieve compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals.
"The city of Madrid will wait a year to dress its streets with art and culture and receive the works of outstanding national and international artists who, through light, will dialogue with the public space," concludes the institutional statement on the area's festival of Culture led by Andrea Levy.
In Barcelona, which has held a huge lighting art festival since 2012, Llum BCN, there is still no decision about the next edition. "The Madrid festival was held this October and the Barcelona festival in February 2023, so we still have time to make a decision and see how the situation evolves," stresses the City Council's head of Culture, Jordi Martí, who opens another melon: "First we'll have to see what we do with the Christmas lights...".
