The show must go on! Entertaining people under emergency rule

"I remember how cool we use to feel two years ago when we went abroad to invite artists to perform in Istanbul," said Murat Abbas, the general director of the Zorlu Performing Arts Center. "Turkey - and Istanbul especially - were very popular. Everybody wanted to come." 

Abbas was meeting with journalists on Sept. 7 to inform them about the new season. But the conversation inevitably focused more on the mounting challenges faced by Turkey's entertainment sector. 

The sector has been badly affected by successive terror attacks. The American Ballet Theater, for example, was scheduled to come to Turkey. But following a vote by its members in January, it cancelled the show and reimbursed the money it had been paid in advance. 

The July 15 coup attempt and the declaration of a state of emergency have complicated things even further.
Still, Abbas feels that the Zorlu Center is among the least affected, as the number of canceled events remained limited to three; one in March, another one in July and the third one in November. Additionally, one event has been postponed to another date.

Security concerns are on the rise; most of the events in open-air venues have been canceled, he said, pointing to the fact that Zorlu benefited from the advantage of being an indoor venue. The fact that the performance center is next to an internationally renowned hotel has also been an additional factor to convince artists to come to Istanbul. 

"We are sending them the sketches of the hotel and the passage leading to the center, showing that once they enter the hotel, they won't have to go out to reach the place in which they will perform," said Abbas.
This, however, has multiplied the accommodation cost fivefold as the center had made...