Seville City Council has sold hundreds of tickets for the Flamenco Biennial for the paradise seating of the Lope de Vega Theatre, whose project is not even tendered. Two months before the first show, the area is a site filled with rubble and cables.
Seville City Council has marketed nearly 700 tickets for the paradise seating of the Lope de Vega Theatre, a space that is currently a site full of rubble and electrical cables. The sale has been made for the nine shows of the Flamenco Biennial scheduled between September 12 and October 2, without even a tendered construction project.
Municipal sources confirm that the old wooden seating, which housed 113 seats in five rows, has been completely dismantled. Now only remnants of construction, air conditioning pipes, and a railing remain. The new project, which would reduce the seating by half for safety reasons, requires a prior technical report that has not even been commissioned.
A ghost seating two months before the premiere
Mayor José Luis Sanz announced last Thursday the reopening of the theatre, closed since September 2023 due to safety issues. However, the delegate for Culture, Ángela María Moreno, admitted that if the seating is not ready by September 12, “the ticket price will be refunded.” The City Council has allocated 110,000 euros for the complete replacement of the structure, but the work has not even begun.
The municipal spokesperson, Juan Bueno, explained on March 13 that “the restoration of the current system was not viable” and that a new structure was needed to “ensure adequate safety conditions.” Despite this, tickets have continued to be sold without waiting for the technical report. The affected shows include artists such as Arcángel, Dorantes, Aurora Vargas, and Juana Amaya.
700 seats in limbo: the Biennial mess
The tickets sold for this area number around 700, depending on the number of seats that are ultimately made available. Neither Urban Planning nor Culture have provided the exact figure or the total amount raised, which would have to be refunded if the work is not completed on time. For the residents of Seville, the situation adds uncertainty: those who have already bought their ticket for the paradise do not know if they will be able to sit or will have to request a refund.
The Flamenco Biennial, an international reference festival, starts in just two months and the Lope de Vega is its main venue. For now, the paradise seating remains a black hole in the recently reopened theatre. The City Council will have to decide whether to accelerate the timelines or face a massive ticket refund. Meanwhile, flamenco enthusiasts are crossing their fingers that they won’t have to watch the show standing.
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