Music festival dates leave GFA facing World Cup diary clash

A clash in dates between the MTV-backed music festival and a World Cup qualifier between Gibraltar and Bosnia Herzegovina will not impact on plans to resurface Victoria Stadium, the Gibraltar Government said last night as it insisted the Gibraltar FA knew about the diary overlap “at a very early stage”.
The newly revamped Gibraltar Music Festival, now known as ‘Gibraltar Calling’, is scheduled to be held in the Victoria Stadium on September 2 and 3, while the football match is slated for September 3.
The double-booking means the Gibraltar FA, which had hoped to host the game here, may have to now look at playing in Faro, Portugal, instead.
The local association was yesterday assessing the impact of the music festival announcement and declined to comment until the situation had been reviewed.
But a spokesman for the Gibraltar Government told the Chronicle that the MTV-backed festival, which was announced on Tuesday evening, was already being promoted on MTV’s social media channels, which have over 42m followers and mean the deal was “of enormous international commercial and reputational value to Gibraltar”.  
“The GFA were made aware at a very early stage that Victoria Stadium would not be available for any sports matches on the weekend of 2/3 September as these were the dates planned for the MTV-backed festival this year,” the spokesman said. 
“Attempts will continue to de-conflict the dates of the Music Festival and GFA international matches until the GFA has its own stadium facilities.” 
The government spokesman referred questions relating to alternative dates for the match, an alternative stadium or resurfacing of the pitch to the GFA.  
“The Government does not, however, believe that there will be any effects on the proposal for the resurfacing of the pitch, the league or future matches,” he added.

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