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The Vienna Opera Ball 2021 will not take place due to the Corona Pandemi. Due to the infection situation, the government will decide to cancel the event at the ministerial meeting today, Wednesday, as reported by APA. “This decision was not easy for us”, said Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP), but it would be “irresponsible to hold the ball in the usual way”.
Kurz and Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) emphasized in a joint statement published by APA that the government did not make the decision to cancel the Opera Ball easy for itself. “But the fact that celebrations and festivals in particular are a place of contagion prompted us to cancel it,” Kurz emphasized.
The Opera Ball is “a great pride for Vienna and Austria as a cultural nation”, said Kurz. The preparations for the ball took months, and “due to the corona situation, it would be irresponsible to hold the ball in the usual manner,” the Chancellor said. “This decision was not easy for us.”
“We are of course aware of the economic and social significance of these events beyond Austria’s borders,” said Kogler. “But in view of the worrying increase in Covid diseases, the protection of health must be a priority.” The State Opera and the other cultural institutions have invested “enormous energy in their security concepts in recent weeks,” praised Kogler. “We are concentrating all our efforts on supporting them and maintaining the cultural business as well as possible,” he assured.
“The Opera Ball has a very long lead time, and we cannot currently assume that an event with 7,000 people in the house, with music, dance and exuberant atmosphere, will be feasible on February 11,” also argued the Green State Secretary for Culture Andrea Mayer.
Already last week, the committee of the Vienna Nobel and Traditional Balls had decided that the events could not be held under the given circumstances. Affected were, among others, the Doctors’ Ball, the Lawyers’ Ball, the Ball of Officers, the Concordiaball and the Ball of Pharmacy. The Hunters’ Ball had already been cancelled.
The Vienna ball season is an important economic factor. Last year, according to calculations by the Chamber of Commerce, the 520,000 ball visitors generated sales of 151 million euros.
— Hector Pascua with reports from APA and kurier.at. Picture: stockilyapp.com
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