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Pocket Concerts have been schedule through December at the Palacio de la Música. Photo: Facebook

Mérida, Yucatán — From renting chairs and tables to offering food service for press conferences, officials at the Palacio de la Música finding ways to pay expenses in 2020.

In an interview for Desde el Balcón, the Director Maleck Abdalá Hadad, explained that government budget cuts have forced them to find ways to earn their keep.

The Music Palace, a state-run performance space, museum and archive of traditional Mexican music, spends 650,000 pesos are spent each month. Of that, almost half is for elecrtricity. The rest goes toward security, water, maintenance and insurance.

Today, the site’s only income is the 100,000 pesos it collects monthly in ticket sales, and a little more from concert space rentals, which brings in between 1,500 to 30,000, depending on whether performers are using terrace, the lobby or the concert hall.

Abdullah Hadad said that “extra income” will allow them to meet their budget.

For 2019, the Music Palace received a budget of 10 million pesos, split between payroll and operating expenses. But comforts such as air conditioning were rationed to avoid generating red ink, he said.

The complex, which was built for 348 million pesos, was inaugurated June 25, 2018. In its first year, 32,000 visitors — mostly Yucatecan and national tourists.

Source: Desde el Balcon