Today, El Diario publishes an interesting report on what young people who turn 18 are spending their 400 Euro Cultural Bonus on. Approved by the coalition government during the previous legislature, it is an aid that is to be distributed in the following way: 200 Euros are to be used for arts such as opera, cinema, dance, live music, museums, libraries, festivals or bullfighting.
Another 100 euros should go to physical products to choose from books, magazines, newspapers or video games and the remaining 100 euros are for digital online consumption, for example audiobooks, podcasts, online video games or digital books.
The newspaper reports that it is not possible to find out which books or video games are the best-selling, but it does provide some interesting data. For example, which festivals these young people are attending, or which companies.
More than 3,000 different companies have benefited from the Cultural Bonus, but 95% of the 124 million euros spent in total are concentrated in just 200 companies, led by Fnac and El Corte Inglés. According to the data provided to this newspaper after a request under the transparency law, we know that Fnac and El Corte Inglés respectively received 20 million euros and 13 million euros, respectively, of part of the Cultural Bonus. This would be 16.2% and 10.75% of the total, between the months of September 2022 and May 2024. In other words, almost a third of the aid has gone between these 2 department stores alone.
Casa del Libro is in 5th place, Enterticket in 6th and Ticketmaster in 7th with 4.6 million euros (less than 4%). Netflix and Yelmo close the top 10, each with around 3.5 million euros in revenue.
Third place is particularly striking, as it is the Reggaeton Beach Festival. It has received more than 7 million euros thanks to the Cultural Bonus, and it leads, by far, the list of festivals that have received the most money. El Diario publishes a top 13 in which we find Puro Latino in 2nd place, Boombastic in 3rd place, Arenal Sound in 6th place and Primavera Sound (with only 241,450 euros) in 12th place. In other words, young people spend 30 times more on the Reggaeton Beach Festival than on Primavera Sound.
Reggaeton Beach Festival is an event that takes place throughout the summer in different cities. Throughout June, July and August there are activities in Oropesa, Tenerife, Benidorm, Malaga, Santander, Mallorca, Madrid, Barcelona, Avilés, Gran Canaria, Nigrán and Torrevieja.
