The Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Seville has ruled that there are no irregularities in the transfer of the Plaza de España by the Seville City Council to the company Green Cow Music for the celebration of the Icónica music festival, which has become the third event due to economic impact in the city. The public ministry has decided to archive the complaint filed at the beginning of November by 16 music producers in which it was alleged that the council could see alleged crimes of prevarication, embezzlement, misuse of public assets, fraud in contracting or influence peddling committed, among others, on the grounds that the requirements for their commission are not met.
The archiving decree concludes, according to sources from the public ministry, that there has been no “arbitrary resolution” or “omission of essential procedures”, the necessary elements for there to be prevarication. The prosecutor reaches this conclusion after analyzing the documentation sent by the council and maintains that the authorizations for the use of the Plaza de España, considered an asset of cultural interest, were processed in accordance with the Ordinance regulating the occupation of public spaces in the historic complex of Seville for activities and ephemeral events, and that the decision was adopted after having the favorable technical reports and the payment of the corresponding fees.
Nor does the Prosecutor’s Office consider that there has been a “hand-made” award for the years between 2026 and 2031. In its writing it is reasoned that “the agreements signed” between the municipal tourism management and promotion company, Contusa, and the promoter of Icónica “guarantee the municipal will to organize the event”, “without any preferential right or specific reservation having been attributed to that entity.” The public ministry recalls that as of today “there is no administrative resolution that authorizes the event for 2026” and warns that “any announcement made by the aforementioned entity with respect to a possible event during the next year is made under its own and exclusive responsibility.”
The festival has already confirmed several performances for next summer, including Jamiroquai, Raphael, Robbie Williams, Marilyn Manson, Lenny Kravitz, Aitana, Moby and Sting. The promoter, Javier Esteban, explains to this newspaper that every year, by virtue of the agreement signed with Contursa until the 31st, they must renew the license. “The City Council receives the project and then must have the OK from Culture, from the Environment… Every year the process is carried out around April or May,” he indicates. “We already signed when the municipal government was socialist that we wanted to hold a sustainable event, that respected the monument and that had a poster according to the city, that is, with a first-class international vision. Since we fulfilled it, we are calm,” he adds.
Green Cow Music, which since the complaining production companies began to mobilize in July to demand documentation from the Seville City Council regarding the transfer of the Plaza de España, had preferred to remain on the sidelines, has reacted to the Prosecutor’s Office file by defending its good work throughout the process and remembering how in recent years they have managed to position Icónica as “the best music festival in Spain.”
The company, which recognizes that the uncertainty about the viability of the event caused by the mobilization of the promoters has made it difficult to hire artists, and has “affected them in financial and sponsorship matters,” is considering the possibility of counterattacking and taking legal action for unfair and reputational competition.
For their part, the 16 complainant promoters, as this newspaper has learned, will appeal to the courts. The entities do not share the Prosecutor’s Office file because they consider that their analysis “has left many doubts to be resolved and has focused especially on the formal appearance of legality of isolated actions without examining the material, continuous and cumulative reality of the events that occurred during the more than 10 agreed years.” They understand that “legality, equal opportunities and public interest in relation to the use of the Plaza de España” can be defended through judicial means.
The public ministry also does not share with the promoters their perception that the City Council rejected offers to hold similar musical events in the same Sevillian enclave, and points out that the company that presented its initiative, Convertour, provided “incomplete and incorrect documentation.” The decree states that the cultural or technical project necessary for the ruling and that was required in the regulatory ordinance was not included. Some deficiencies that have not been corrected for the 2026 edition either.
The Prosecutor’s Office also does not consider that the declaration of this festival as of general interest by the City Council has “represented an exclusive award or transfer of the commercial exploitation of the Plaza de España” and argues that during this time Icónica has coexisted with another series of events of a sporting, cultural, tourist and institutional nature. Nor does it support the complainants in their perception that the celebration of the Festival has meant a detriment or damage to the public coffers of Seville because the promoter paid a lower fee than that paid for the use of other similar public cultural spaces that take place in other provincial capitals, as they included in their letter. The prosecutor understands that in each of the editions the corresponding fees have been accrued and entered and that the occupation and occasional activity licenses have been granted in accordance with current legislation.
What he does warn about in his writing is the need for the administration to adapt its municipal regulations “to the changes in the reality it regulates, recognizing the new social dynamics to ensure their effectiveness and adaptation.” In this sense, and again against the criteria of the complaining promoters, the Prosecutor’s Office considers that the beginning of the procedures by the City Council to prepare a new ordinance that regulates the uses, calendars and authorization procedures in the Plaza de España, is the appropriate response to this concern.
Since its start in September 2021, Green Cow Music has managed to consolidate the Plaza de España as an auditorium where the most relevant figures from the national and international music scene gather each year, with an eclectic mix of artists. vintage and emerging singers or groups that guarantee the attendance of audiences of all ages, from all corners of Spain, every day. After three years of losses, Icónica, as its promoter emphasizes, has become “the only major festival in Spain that does not receive any public aid.” During this time, in addition to confirming itself as a musical reference, a sales leader in this country, it has also had to deal with criticism, especially from residents of Seville, for the hijacking of a public space, such as the María Luisa Park, during concert days when a good part of the perimeter of one of the largest green spaces in the city is closed to visitors, preventing its enjoyment.