The City Council of Barcelona sold out the **20,000** initial Culture Vouchers in just **15 hours**. It now restricts the upcoming periods to residents of the city.
The first 20,000 Culture Vouchers worth 20 euros sold out in 15 hours, as reported by the Barcelona City Council itself. The voucher can be used for live performances such as concerts, theatre, or circus, as well as for cinema tickets or purchasing books.
There are 35,000 vouchers left to distribute, to complete the 55,000 planned for the entire campaign. According to the City Council of Barcelona, they will be available in the two remaining waves: the second, from 11 January to 25 April, and the third, from 26 April to 31 July. The total budget for the programme amounts to 1.5 million euros.
The controversy arose after the registrations closed. The municipal group of ERC, which had proposed the initiative to Jaume Collboni, criticized that the call was open to all Catalans and not just to the city's residents.
“The Vouchers sold out in a single day because they were not limited to the residents of the city,” lamented the republican candidate Elisenda Alamany.
Hours after that criticism, the City Council changed its stance. It announced that the upcoming periods of the Culture Voucher would be reserved for residents of the Catalan capital, excluding those living in other municipalities from the next wave.
“This is a policy we agreed on two years ago, focusing on consumption in Catalan for Barcelonans,” stated Alamany.
The programme also includes a prioritisation criterion for Catalan. According to the City Council, at least 70% of the Culture Voucher offerings must be in Catalan, a percentage that rises to 100% in the cinema and book sectors. Thus, Spanish is excluded from these two areas.
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