From RTVAC:
The Mafasca Collective rejects the transfer of the Insular Craft Fair to Pozo Negro.
a-1-3 At a general meeting of the Mafasca Collective Foundation held on Tuesday,
January 21, it was unanimously agreed to reject the proposal of the City Council of Antigua to move the Insular Craft Fair to the facilities of the experimental Farm of Pozo Negro . After assessing the arguments presented by the City Council for its transfer, he considered that the Craft Fair that he founded 32 years ago must remain in the surroundings of Antigua, since the FIA is more than a sales market assuming a meeting space around the culture and heritage of the island where associations, groups or schools, make the town of Antigua the cultural heart of Fuerteventura.
The transfer of the fair would be an economic damage for the sectors that it aims to boost, since when we acquire a piece of handicraft we are buying quality and exclusivity, a unique object that must be accompanied by the context, which would be lost in an industrial environment. In addition to eliminating one of the resources of tourist attraction that has the town of Antigua, which takes advantage of the promotion that takes place in those weeks and the name of the Fair to invite visitors to the island to know the towns of the interior of the municipality.
It would also eliminate the economic impact that businesses and restaurants in the area receive those days. Thus, we consider that all businesses in the nucleus of Antigua and the towns of the region will see their business activity resentful, canceling one of the
Events that generate significant income for the development of the commercial fabric of the premises.
The security problems raised are rectifiable, since there is a technical report that determines the adequacy of the foundation for the installation of the infrastructure. In addition, in none of the previous safety meetings or in the evaluations carried out at the end of each edition held in the surroundings of the Cheese Museum, problems have been raised that prevent its celebration, improving in each edition aspects such as mobility, expanding parking lots and improving Free collective transport.
The success of the FIA is not given by the number of visitors or its size, it is based on its concept of caring for participants, its production and sales, details such as music programming or promotion among the youngest. All this was recognized in 2015 with the gold medal of the Government of the Canary Islands, and valued by the artisans who attend every year, the protagonists of the event. Thus, we believe that all changes in future editions should be aimed at the enhancement of handicrafts, to the improvement of the sales routes, to increase the dissemination of the cultural heritage that is in the hands of our artisans.
For all the above, the assembly of the Mafasca Collective Foundation, founder and co-organizer of the Insular Craft Fair, requested the City Council of Antigua to reconsider the proposal to transfer the celebration of the same, keeping it in the surroundings of the town of Antigua.