Although “Oder na Dravi” (Stage on the Drava River) has already hosted events at the recent Lent 2018 Festival, it still does not have all the necessary permissions. Foto: BoBo
Although “Oder na Dravi” (Stage on the Drava River) has already hosted events at the recent Lent 2018 Festival, it still does not have all the necessary permissions. Foto: BoBo

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Although "Oder na Dravi" (Stage on the Drava River) has already hosted events at the recent Lent 2018 Festival, it still does not have all the necessary permissions. The consequences, it seems, will not be as mild as the municipality hoped, since the construction inspector ordered the demolition of the stage by 15 July. According to the mayor of the Maribor municipality Andrej Fištravec: "When we applied for a building permit, the administrative unit said that we do not need any licenses or permits."

The municipality has now announced an appeal to the inspector's order. However, the building permit is not the only one that should have been acquired but also the "water permit", which is a condition for acquiring the building permit, is also missing. The latter is supposedly in the application process.

Many other questions arise – whether the floating stage, considering the total costs of storing, setting up and disassembly, is even cheaper than the previous one, which the municipality used to rent. Additionally, it is not clear whether the stage will be used only for the Lent Festival or will it host other events, too, or have the option to be rented. The mayor says it will. "There is already some interest for the events on the main stage." Only after the implemented investment, which appears full of irregularities, the municipality is now also preparing a management model.