Update: The organisers have told The Journal that the initiative has been cancelled “due to the ongoing negative reaction as a result of incorrect reporting.”
The organisers have taken issue with myself and others using the words “pay to play” saying that “bands were being asked to do a little bit of work to earn their slot and if they were performing at their own gig they would have to do the same.” Being booked for a gig on merit and an ability to bring in fans is one thing but expecting a band to raise money through direct ticket sales or they won’t get to play is in my opinion and many others, “pay to play.” regardless of the fee a band will receive. It sets a dangerous precedent by which a band is expected to be a performer, a promoter and a ticket agent. More than anything, it shows a lack of respect for emerging Irish bands.
The organisers of the Killarney Festival of Music & Food, formerly the Westport Festival Of Music And Performing Arts, has raised more than a few eyebrows this week in their plan for a stage at the festival in June which involves a “pay to play” system in which bands are expected to do ALL the promoter’s work for them.
The festival, which has already announced names like Father John Misty, Jools Holland, Damien Dempsey, The Undertones, Marc Almond, Gemma Hayes and Kormac’s Big Band among others outlayed their plans to bands who contacted the festival about playing.
The festival is asking bands who want to play one of the smaller stages – called The Actbacker, and billed as an emerging talent stage, to sell a minimum of 50 day tickets (at €76 plus booking fee each) in order to qualify to play the stage. The more they sell, the higher up on the bill they appear. “The acts selling the most will headline,” an email sent to the bands, forwarded to Nialler9, said.
The festival says that the band are required to set up a Fundit page to track sales (Fundit have addressed this on Jim Carroll’s blog today ) and that all sales will be split 70/30% in the festival’s favour.
So a band has to badger “friends, family and fans” to raise €3,800 in sales to play. €1,140 of that will go to the band (before deduction of Ticketmaster commission and VAT it says) for doing all the sales, promotion and essentially, stage curation and €2,660 goes to the festival for doing very little. The band then get to play at a small stage at the festival. Hmm.
Overall, the festival says there are nine acts on the stage per day so 18 in total. So that’s €47,880 in festival revenue if 18 bands sold 50 tickets each. “The 70% retained by the Festival will cover the costs for the stage to include staging, sound, lights, insurance etc,” says the mail.
It goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway: BANDS DO NOT DO THIS.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
Shocking and also very depressing 🙁 Well done for making this public knowledge
They appear to have cancelled the stage now
Wow. As though musicians weren’t exploited enough!
Meh. It’s pretty disgraceful alright but if you’re stupid enough to go along with it then that’s your problem. They make it fairly clear that you are getting bent over but hey… some bands will do anything for some attention.
Here’s the full email explaining the cancellation of the stage after today’s backlash. They take issue with the ‘pay to play’ and blame people like myself and the bands for giving out about it.
As far as I’m concerned despite the protestations otherwise, asking acts to raise money so they can play a stage is “pay to play”That is the origin of the term from gigs back in the day where the promoter takes a cut of sales generated directly by a band in order to play.
Own up to your mistakes and stop blaming others!
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Killarney Festival of Music & Food – Emerging Artists Stage
Killarney Festival of Music & Food had planned to create a brand new stage for emerging Irish talent. The promoters wanted to create the stage in response to the hundreds of requests that we receive each year from relatively unknown acts who wish to play at the festival.
In the past, we have only been able to accommodate a handful of unknown bands early in the day as festival openers, however this year we wanted to fill a stage for a two full days with musicians playing up to 11pm at night. We were planning to create a platform to promote new acts and accommodate up to 18 new bands over the weekend.
We wanted the Emerging Artists stage to be a highlight of the festival however due to the significant costs associated with creating a well-produced stage for new talent including a marquee, sound, lighting, generators, barriers, stage management, security however the promoters can’t afford to create a stage and cover these costs for bands who have little or no track record. We would be delighted if a sponsor would come on board to cover the costs of the stage, then we wouldn’t have to go down the crowd funding route.
Contrary to misleading comments circulating through social media, we were not asking bands to ‘pay to play’. Bands and musicians who play would be paid a good fee (more than they would receive at any other festival), receive promotion through the festivals website and be included on festival merchandise and in an extensive marketing campaign while getting the opportunity to play alongside world class acts including Burt Bacharach, Jools Holland, TEXAS and many more to be announced.
Bands were being asked to do a little bit of work to earn their slot and if they were performing at their own gig they would have to do the same. All the bands had to do was reach out to their fanbase and seek their support and their fans would get a full day ticket for the festival in return. Bands were not been asked to ‘pay to play’.
Crowd funding sites including Fundit, Indigogo, Kickstarter and PledgeMusic are already widely used by many Irish bands and musicians to raise funds to produce singles and albums so there is no reason why they can’t help launch musicians careers by helping fund, profile building, live performances.
Due to the ongoing negative reaction as a result of incorrect reporting, Killarney Festival has made the reluctant decision not to go ahead with this stage at this time.
We have always supported and booked Irish talent and so far over 85% of the line-up is made up of Irish bands and musicians and we will continue to support Irish talent as much as possible.
Bands were being asked to do a little bit of work, you say. What an insult. Bands spend endless hours composing and rehearsing and they get very modest recompense for their hard work. No matter how you cut it, you were simply exploiting them further. Shameful.
Arse weasels