Torrevieja groups municipal nativity scene services into a single contract

The Torrevieja City Council has set a maximum budget of 73,844€, including VAT, to contract the comprehensive service for the Municipal Nativity Scene during the 2026-2027 campaign. The contracting of this public money expenditure is based on technical justification from the Department of Tourism, which combines tradition, culture, tourism promotion, and economic activity.

The contract specifications state that the Municipal Nativity Scene is one of the most representative manifestations of Christmas in Torrevieja. It maintains that its installation attracts residents and visitors, encourages public attendance in the centre, and generates activity for commerce, hospitality, and the service sector. It also frames it within the municipal responsibilities of promoting culture and conserving local traditions.

The City Council also defends the continuity of an installation that it considers consolidated within the Christmas programme. The objective of the expenditure is to guarantee its assembly, conservation, protection, and exhibition, reinforcing its role as a cultural and tourist attraction during these dates.

Grouped into one

The tender includes in a single contract the installation of the tent, the scenery, the lighting and sound, the assembly and dismantling, the conservation of the pieces, and the security service during the exhibition period. Until now, some of these services were contracted in different files, for example, security and the tent, without the Intervention department or legal advice warning of the splitting of contracts.

The specification document now considers that all these services form a functional unit. It points out that having several successful bidders, as has happened until now, could complicate the coordination between the assembly of the tent, the scenes, the lighting, the conservation of the figures, and security. It attributes this change from previous years to the greater professionalisation and the cultural and tourist relevance that, according to the file itself, the Municipal Nativity Scene has acquired.

Two hundred square metres

The installation will be located in the Plaza de la Constitución. The nativity scene will occupy about 90 square metres, with approximate dimensions of 15 metres long by six metres wide. The tent protecting it will be 20 by 10 metres, with a surface area of 200 square metres.

The arched tent with rigid panels has an estimated cost of 17,494€. The contract also covers the platforms, carpet, delimitation elements, transport, assembly, dismantling, and legalisation of the structure.

The municipal heritage dedicated to the nativity scene consists of approximately 500 figures of different sizes and typologies. This is a nativity heritage that has been difficult to build amid supposed corporate appropriations and disappearances. Now the pieces are the property of the City Council. The company will have to handle their distribution and build the sceneries, landscapes, buildings, and decorations that will complete the exhibition. The document requires a minimum of ten biblical scenes. Each has an assigned cost of 1,727.88€, including VAT.

The scenes

The scene of the Annunciation to the Virgin, for example, starts from a direct cost of 1,200€ and reaches 1,727.88€ after adding general expenses, industrial profit, and VAT. The same amount is established for Joseph’s dream, the census, the search for an inn, the annunciation to the shepherds, the birth, the adoration of the Magi, the massacre of the innocents, the flight into Egypt, and the Holy Family. The ten scenes total 17,278.80€.

Repair

The contract also reserves 5,759.60€ for the repair, restoration, and repainting of figures and landscapes after dismantling. Another 1,583.89€ corresponds to packaging, cleaning, and inventory, and 2,015.86€ to the transport of elements and modules during assembly and dismantling. The security service will have a minimum duration of 417 hours during the opening of the nativity scene, scheduled between 28 November 2026 and 7 January 2027. Its cost is estimated at 8,250.02€. The contract adds another 518.36€ for three fire extinguishers. Personnel must control access, organise queues, supervise the facilities, and monitor capacity. The maximum expected is 100 people simultaneously inside the exhibition.

Battery of contracts

Furthermore, the government team has already begun its annual rally of awards linked to the patron saint and Christmas festivities. The organisation of the La Purísima and Christmas festivities has been put out to tender, and the ornamental lighting contract has been awarded, which had been covered without contractual support since last February because the responsible area forgot to activate the extension possibility. This last service has been awarded for 700,000€ per year to, once again, Iluminaciones Granja. Little by little, municipal technical services are getting the involved departments to group contracts to avoid splitting and hand-picking, which has been the usual practice for many years.