PARIS, France (CelebrityAccess) — A new proposal from the French government may seek to force event producers to reimburse the French government for law enforcement assets deployed at festivals.
According to IQ Mag, the proposal, pushed by French pushed by interior minister Gerard Collomb, festivals would be financially liable for any law enforcement called to an event for an issue not related to terrorism.
The industry has expressed dismay at the proposal, suggesting that it would effectively make festivals too costly to produce without steep rises in ticket prices, IQ reported.
The report cited organizes for Eurockéennes, who claimed that the festival’s security costs would balloon from €30,000 to €254,000.
In the wake of a series of terror attacks in 2016 and 2017, France had established a fund to help event companies defray the cost of increased security measures, but that fund is set to expire in 2019, leaving many event producers without recourse.
Organizers noted that the change would result in festival fans paying twice for security – once through their taxes and then again through event ticket IQ said.
