Fewer Spanish towns stage bullfights due to recession
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 @ 12:58 PM
Tight budgets have forced local councils to cancel or scale back their annual bullfighting fiestas which can amount to hundreds of thousands of euros.
Madrid – Spain's steep recession has led dozens of cash-strapped local councils to scrap their annual bullfighting fiestas to save public money, official figures and bullfighting entrepreneurs said Tuesday.
The Madrid regional government said it had granted authorisations for 401 bullfighting festivals as of the beginning of August, a 20 percent drop over the same time last year due mainly to the economic slowdown.
Nearly 30 percent fewer bullfights have been staged across Spain this year, with the drop coming mostly in small towns where lesser known matadors perform, said former French bullfighter Simon Casas, one of Europe's biggest bullfighting impresarios.
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