For the third year in a row, the Cuernavaca Fair has been cancelled by municipal authorities for security reasons.

Mayor Antonio Villalobos Adán explained that one of the main reasons to suspend the event, scheduled for mid-April, was the uncertainty over what security strategy the municipality’s new government will adopt.

“We must first guarantee the physical safety of those visiting . . . [the fair] can take place on another date, and not necessarily during Easter Week,” he said.

The municipality’s tourism promotion secretary said the fair needs to recover its status as a tourist and cultural attraction, which it lost many years ago, and become an event worthy of the capital of Morelos.

Andrés Remis Martínez said the fair instead has become more like a cantina, or bar, contributing to insecurity and violence.

“The Cuernavaca Fair should be about culture, flowers and food, and not a beer fest,” he said.

Violence and insecurity have contributed to the cancellation of the fair in the recent past, including the murder of its organizer in 2017. But before that the event had earned criticism for the sale of counterfeit products and copious amounts of alcohol, and for showcasing bands that were apologists for narco-culture.

Remis dismissed the suggestion that the fair would be cancelled permanently, asserting that the event could well take place in the summer and become a cultural and gastronomic festivity with ties to nature, instead of a “beer fest and counterfeit goods market.”

Source: Milenio (sp)