2024-04-18 15:13:03
Theaters, cinemas, bookstores and museums… are late.
It’s not just the shopkeepers in the center who are “heartbroken” by being forced to roll down the blinds every time the city… protests. Culture has also fallen victim to the incidents and the rapid increase in crime. Bookstore owners turn into… security, theater operators rent parking lots for patrons, historic movie theaters get (emergency) back doors and automatic irons. Despite the measures, traffic continues to fall, as the last thing people want is to mix their entertainment with tear gas and molotov cocktails.
According to official statistics, the cinema tickets of 2010 (January – December) compared to those of 2009 showed a decrease in purchasing traffic of the order of 28%! “The last two years have been the worst. The reduction in tickets exceeded 30%. The anarchy of the center scares people who don’t come down here anymore. Last year, with the Marfin events, we closed the doors to Apollo and Attikon for several days,” says Panagiotis Tsakalakis, director of the two cinemas. For Ilion and Trianon things are even worse, since according to the head of the hall and member of the Board of Directors. of the Panhellenic Union of Auditors Leonidas Papageorgiou, “the September-May period was the worst of the last decade. Things are even more difficult since the Victoria station has not been working for some time now.”
As the director of the bookstore, Ianos Vassilis Hatziiacovou, told APE, “in order to deal with the continuous demonstrations and any vandalism, we ourselves, who stand like rocks in front of the doors at the risk of our lives, need to guard the bookstore.”
But also the artistic director of the Art Theater Diagoras Chronopoulos says: “It is a very tough test for the theaters of the center. The audience does not come even for a single ticket booking, fearing episodes. After the attack on the Art Theater on Frynichou Street in Plaka, people hesitate to come and always ask us if we are being protected by the Police.
Cooperation with parking lots and operating hours that do not exceed those of the metro are two of the “measures” applied by the artistic director of the Victoria theater Dimitris Komninos. “Fortunately we haven’t had to lower the blinds yet. There is a general decline but I believe it is also a matter of psychology. In times of crisis, however, art has survived.”
Back door
However, the testimony of Giorgos Spentzos, owner of the historic Ideal cinema on Panepistimi Street, is also shocking, who has activated the back door of the cinema in times of need, while at the same time he has installed automatic irons that lower in five seconds to prevent panic. “The protest marches ending in Syntagma Square and the subsequent incidents in many cases have affected the operation of the cinema. In recent years it has been broken three times, sometimes the marbles to use them as a weapon against the MAT, sometimes the windows and the entrance. Spectators, when they want to see a movie that is being played in other areas, prefer to go anywhere other than the center. If you hear that wood is falling in the Propylaia, why go to the cinema in the center?” he wonders.
But a big “hurt” is the disturbance of the center and for the museums. “It is really sad what is happening, given that here we are there are two large and well-known museums, the National Archaeological Museum and the Epigraphic Museum. Our main problem is drug addicts, those unhappy children we see every morning. Our museums are visited daily by young children with their schools. In the past the museum has organized guided tours for children who have joined drug addiction programs and we are positive about any similar initiative” says Maria Englezou, director of the Tositsa Street Epigraphic Museum.
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