The arts and culture ministry, together with the Malta Entertainment Industry & Arts Association (MEIA) is “considering other means” besides the current financial schemes set to ease the hardship of Malta’s creative sector, Minister for the National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government, Jose Herrera told The Malta Independent.

Following the announcement − by Health Minister Chris Fearne on 5 August − that the resumption for stand-up events was being postponed - this newsroom questioned Minister Herrera for some more insight into this decision.

Besides doing “all [he] can” and being “sympathetic and understanding” to the hardships the arts sector is facing at the moment, Herrera stated that the go ahead for standing events were not in his hands, but that of Malta’s health authorities, such that his Ministry had to follow in their direction.

As he put it: “standing events are obviously not my prerogative as I have to bow down to the health ministry.”

He went on to express how Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne and Public Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci are “experts on the matter and this is a collective government decision so I cannot move at a tangent, but I have to regulate this ministry in line with what health authorities say for the safety of the people”.

In response to the short-term notice being given for these directives, he described the difficulty in programming event guidelines in advance due to their go-ahead being dependent on the Covid-19 situation at that given time.

 “It’s very difficult when you have a pandemic especially in this particular sector to program in advance because you don’t know what is going to happen,” Herrera said.

He concluded to say that he was hopeful that the resumption of standing events will happen soon.

Nightclub owners said last week they felt they had been misled after a document uploaded on the Malta Arts Council website which referred to standing events capped at 100 people as from 16 August was later amended, with all references to standing events removed.

The new document was uploaded on the same day that Fearne said standing events will not be permitted for the time being. The announcement came as a surprise to many in the sector as the Deputy Prime Minister was widely expected to announce that such events would be allowed to take place.