Good choice not to do it. If you added up all the hours involved, it would be a lot. Do other people working there do it for free? Probably not.
This reminds me of a big motorcycle rally that used to be near me. Bikers would come in from a large distance for this event. They would rake in a lot of money for this one day event.
Two years in a row, the organizer called me and wanted my band at the time to play for it on a Saturday night. We were one of the more well known bands at the time and that why he wanted us. He said he would provide sound and we would play I think a 2 hour set.
Here is the rub. He said they don't pay the bands but he would give us free beer and T-shirts and the famous exposure hook. He also said they donate all the proceeds after expenses to the borough where it was held.
The sound guy was getting paid. They also had to pay lots of other expenses such as food, beer, advertising, insurance, etc. that were not doing it for free out of the goodness of their hearts.
Both times, I very politely declined and said we can't give up a Saturday to play for free when we would have a paying gig that day and needed the money to pay our bills. I said 2 of us don't drink beer and I can't pay my electric bill with a T-shirt. I also said none of us live in the borough that benefited from the event. In addition, I said we didn't need exposure since we played about 85 gigs a year then and were one of the better known bands. Plus, I said 90% of the people in attendance did not live anywhere near there and would never come to see us some place else.
One year, I heard that they donated $75,000 to the local borough from the event. I said but they could not even give each band member some money.
They ended up with some really bad bands and some of them were groups that did not even exist but were thrown together to play. I said the people who were paying quite a bit of money to attend this rally wanted to hear good bands; not what they had.
Well, as fate would have it, the whole motorcycle rally came to a screeching halt (pun intended) and it is no more. They had some other issues that caused its demise including a biker who fell into a bonfire and was seriously injured. Bad management was the downfall of an event that originally had good intentions.
I run lots of festivals and events and book the bands. I would never ask a band to play for free.
This reminds me of a big motorcycle rally that used to be near me. Bikers would come in from a large distance for this event. They would rake in a lot of money for this one day event.
Two years in a row, the organizer called me and wanted my band at the time to play for it on a Saturday night. We were one of the more well known bands at the time and that why he wanted us. He said he would provide sound and we would play I think a 2 hour set.
Here is the rub. He said they don't pay the bands but he would give us free beer and T-shirts and the famous exposure hook. He also said they donate all the proceeds after expenses to the borough where it was held.
The sound guy was getting paid. They also had to pay lots of other expenses such as food, beer, advertising, insurance, etc. that were not doing it for free out of the goodness of their hearts.
Both times, I very politely declined and said we can't give up a Saturday to play for free when we would have a paying gig that day and needed the money to pay our bills. I said 2 of us don't drink beer and I can't pay my electric bill with a T-shirt. I also said none of us live in the borough that benefited from the event. In addition, I said we didn't need exposure since we played about 85 gigs a year then and were one of the better known bands. Plus, I said 90% of the people in attendance did not live anywhere near there and would never come to see us some place else.
One year, I heard that they donated $75,000 to the local borough from the event. I said but they could not even give each band member some money.
They ended up with some really bad bands and some of them were groups that did not even exist but were thrown together to play. I said the people who were paying quite a bit of money to attend this rally wanted to hear good bands; not what they had.
Well, as fate would have it, the whole motorcycle rally came to a screeching halt (pun intended) and it is no more. They had some other issues that caused its demise including a biker who fell into a bonfire and was seriously injured. Bad management was the downfall of an event that originally had good intentions.
I run lots of festivals and events and book the bands. I would never ask a band to play for free.
