"Long live the bonus!" The Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, has thus concluded his announcement of the date on which finally, ten months after the announcement of the new measure, young people who turn 18 in 2022 will be able to request the 400 euros of the Youth Cultural Bonus: It will be from next Monday, July 25 on the website www.bonoculturajoven.gob.es. Of course, to do so they must have a digital certificate or use the Cl@ve authentication system, which will be enabled in a few days. They will be able to apply for membership until October 15.
"Today is an important, happy day," Iceta started, surrounded by the different general managers of his department. "Today we can set a date for a long-awaited commitment: next Monday the registration for the Youth Cultural Bonus will open for all young people who turn 18 in 2022, who were born in 2004. This past Monday we already opened registration to companies and there are already more than 525 who have applied to join this program, so that when young people sign up they will already enjoy a wide cultural offer".
"The bonus will work fundamentally through mobile phones, it will be a wallet card, but for those young people who prefer a physical card they can also have it", explained the Minister of Culture. In fact, the Youth Cultural Bonus will work with a prepaid card issued by Correos and that can be had virtually on the mobile or physically, and can be picked up at any post office in Spain.
The distribution of the 400 euros in cultural spending in one year from the activation of the card will have limits: up to 200 euros for live culture, from dance, theater and opera to museums; another hundred euros can be used for physical products, for example, books, newspapers or records; and one hundred euros more can be used in digital products: digital press, podcasts, online video games or subscriptions to platforms, with a maximum of four months, although Iceta has indicated that they encourage all companies that adhere to complement the bonus with their own offers: "Nobody forbids a platform to add two or three more months for free to the four of the bonus".
The bodies of the Ministry itself are already doing it: the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (Inaem) directed by Joan Francesc Marco announced during the presentation of the Voucher that young people who are users of the Voucher will be able to access the tickets of their theaters with a 50% discount complementary to the purchase. If they become subscribers to the seasons, they will have a 10% complementary discount, with which the discount that young people who buy with the Voucher in the Inaem theaters can get up to a 60% discount.
They are also in contact with municipal and regional theaters, which have ensured that they are signing up for the Voucher. They are also in talks with major music festivals so that they offer, in addition to the possibility of buying tickets, that they have exclusive offers.
In the reading sector, the general director of the Book, María José Gálvez, recalled that with the Voucher you can attend literary festivals, buy books and magazines or ebooks, and that the sector will offer added discounts: the booksellers platform Todostuslibros will raffle 100 complementary bonuses of 20 euros for purchases in associated bookstores, distributors are looking for formulas to facilitate subscriptions to newspapers and magazines through newsstands throughout the country, and the comic sector works in cafes with comic authors , plates and special dedications.
The objective of the voucher, Iceta stressed, is to promote cultural habits, to encourage young people to experiment, but also to energize the cultural sectors and industries themselves "which have suffered a lot in the pandemic and it is time to lend them a hand and reciprocate their efforts. Some 500,000 young people from all over Spain will benefit from this measure, which will cost public coffers 210 million euros. The Bonus will only work in establishments and companies that are part of the program.
