Prague, March 20 (CTK) – The Mastercard company is this year’s new partner of the Prague Spring international music festival and, aside from sponsorship of an unspecified amount, it will provide for non-cash payment facilities in the Municipal House, festival director Roman Belor told reporters on Tuesday.
The 80-million-crown budget for the festival is funded by the Czech Culture Ministry and Prague at 40 percent, while another 40 percent are provided by sponsors and 20 percent come from the ticket sales income and as support given by the Friends of the Prague Spring Club’s patrons.
“The financial condition of the Prague Spring is very good and stable. We are definitely not threatened by an inability to meet our liabilities neither this year, nor the next one. Of course, we have financial reserves to secure the budget in case of any fluctuations,” Belor said.
The Culture Ministry, the festival’s chief sponsor, contributes to it by approximately 23 million crowns. The Prague City Hall, whose contribution has been increasing every year, pledged sponsorship of 10.5 million crowns.
The innogy CR joint stock company continues to be partner of the festival, also supporting its audiovisual projects. Apart from other support, it will be the partner of the final concert, which will feature compositions by Zdenek Fibich, Eugen Suchon and Leos Janacek.
Further partners of the festival include the CzechTourism state agency and the Regional Development Ministry.
The overall partnership has seen growth also owing to the festival being a significant ambassador of the Czech music scene abroad, which contributes to incoming tourism to the country.
The public Czech Television (CT) is the festival’s general media partner and the Czech Radio (CRo) is its chief media partner.
A number of enterprises act as partners of the festival’s individual concerts, too.
Last year’s December 12 launch of ticket presales met with immense interest by the public, as some 10,000 tickets of the total of 39,000 were sold or booked within the first five hours.
“The ticket sales are in essence the same as last year,” festival spokesman Pavel Trojan jr. told CTK.
Last year, the festival offered 49 concerts and 94 percent of the total of 35,000 tickets were sold. Thirty-seven concerts were sold out. The ticket sales revenues reached 25.2 million crowns.
