Sylvie Durán Salvatierra officially took over as culture and youth minister on Tuesday, while the ministry's Film Center Director Max Valverde Soto was appointed vice minister.

Costa Rica’s Culture Ministry in a press release confirmed the definitive cancellation of all concerts suspended during the failed edition of this year’s International Arts Festival (FIA 2015).

In testimony Thursday before a Legislative Assembly commission, Costa Rica's former Culture Minister Elizabeth Fonseca downplayed the colossal failure of this year's International Arts Festival, or FIA, saying, "this whole situation has been exaggerated; the gravity of what happened was blown out of proportion.”

Fonseca said organizers' insistence on boosting the festival budget means there's not much money left for other cultural activities that rely on the same funding pool.

Culture vice ministers Alfredo Chavarría Fennel and Carlos Luis Amador Brenes and FIA Director Inti Picado also were dismissed.

President Luis Guillermo Solís said Thursday at a public event that dismissals at the Culture Ministry “are among the possibilities” depending on the report Minister Elizabeth Fonseca Corrales presents next Monday.

Casa Presidencial announced yesterday that President Luis Guillermo Solís has requested a special investigation into this year’s FIA (which has been playfully nicknamed “FIAsco” by observers).

As the troubled 2015 edition of the International Arts Festival limps to a close, the show of popular national band Sonámbulo Psicotropical promised to be a bright spot in a fortnight filled with disorganization and controversy. However, it turned out to be just another casualty on a long list of cancellations.

Culture Minister Elizabeth Fonseca told La Nación that 3,400 tickets to the rescheduled show would be distributed free among the residents of Aserrí, Desamparados and Acosta — the three communities where the 2015 International Arts Festival's main events were supposed to take place. Another 1,800 will be put up for sale, the daily reported.

This year's International Arts Festival has been plenty entertaining so far — just not in the way the Costa Rican government intended. Instead of people mapping out a schedule to squeeze in as much music and culture as possible, they're gossiping indignantly about how the festival's organizers could have possibly messed it up quite this badly.