The Panama Jazz Festival closing Ceremony will be held at the Cathedral

The organization committee members of the 9^th edition Panama Jazz Festival found itself facing a challenge: they had no authorization to perform their traditional open-air concert in the Cathedral’s Plaza, with which they put their final touch on the week of jazz.

Yesterday, the Department of Panamanian Heritage advised those responsible for the jazz festival that they needed to have a meeting in order to coordinate the performance scheduled for January 21^st, because there are several projects currently developing around the Plaza using heavy machinery.

Also, the initial work for project Preservación del Patrimonio Histórico de la Ciudad (Historical Preservation of the City) in Casco Antiguo is allegedly scheduled to begin on January 16^th. This project will run for approximately 15 months and will be managed by the Odebrecht company.

All these construction projects involve the closure of several roads in the area and a risk in the security line. Therefore, the case had to be reviewed to determine the possibility of carrying out this activity that annually attracts thousands of spectators, Yamileth Stanziola, Director in charge of the Panamanian Heritage, explained.

Alarms went off in the festival’s organization committee, led by the pianist Danilo Pérez, who was initially avoiding making any comments. However, just after 5:00PM, the Department of Panamanian Heritage reported, through their spokesperson, that the permission to perform the presentation had finally been granted, after a meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Public Works and Tourism Authority.

An agreement was reached with the Proyecto Casa Alianza to temporary stop the construction projects and remove the heavy machinery, so that the presentation can be carried out.

Upon receiving authorization, Perez said he will take necessary security measures, and emphasized that the presentations will begin at 1:00 pm