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> Dear Mark and SRL, > > We have been in negotiation since July with Mark in order to bring SRL to Lisbon. The idea of bringing you originated a couple of years when Natxo, the general thinking head and director of the gallery and festival saw the SRL show in Barcelona. Finally this year, with the theme of Apocalyptic sensibility in mind and thinking we had a larger budget that in the past years, the conditions seemed perfect to bring you over. > > The negotiations started. We found what we thought was the perfect space. Large, easily accessible and with all the conditions fo the whole crew to eat, sleep and work on spot. The electricity ws sufficient, it was in front of the port.... > > Bu the problemns started when some of our sponsors, notably City Hall of Lisbon, cut and withdrew a lot of their financial promises and cash support ( the elections are a week before the festival starts, October 14th). We found ourselves somewhat in a difficult position when Mark asked for 15 000USD instead of the previous 10 000 USD. Your show presented 6 times the price of all the other shows we are presenting. But we managed to squeeze it through and found the funds. So we went through with writting up the contract for 15 000 USD and sent on Monday the first payment, a check for 5 000$. > > It was shortly after that we started hearing rumours that we might not get the space, so I did ask Mark for the show to be earlier, impossible. On Thursday, it was confirmed that the space had been leased out for three times the amount we had agreed on with the owner of the space. It was rented out to City Hall for Nov 12th. We could have the space from the 1 until the 10th, but as we had previoulsy undertsood that made the show impossible there. > > We did call Town hall to have their show postponed but the gala/fest they organized started Nov 12 th at night. We felt nailed. We spent Thursday and Friday finding other possibilites, none ready immediately, none with on spot lodging or the same power facility. We got very scared of not being able to find the appropriate space. We went to EXPO 98, which organizes big shows and presented them with your material. They were extremely interested and we quoted the 100 000$ figure ( although they want to negotiate it) but not until next summer. > > At that point, we felt that we could not offer the right conditions for you to come here without risking to jeopordize the festival and offering you an awful experience. We decided to cancel with much regret and some shame. We sincerely apologize for all the troubles we have put you through. We have offered Mark to come out here though to present a conference on SRL. He will also then be able to negotiate an event with EXPO 98 ( possibly coproduced by us) for next summer if you can place your thrust in a portuguese event once again.
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> We sincerely hope you will be able to reorganize your schedules and that you wont blame Mark for this. It is our fault.
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| > For Festival Atlantico | For Festival Atlantico |
| > Alexandra Guite | Natxo Checa |