Show me the money- or not!
The Act committee continues to have the discussion around Tune up the Parks and what is in store for 2021. Unfortunately for our local musicians who are small business owners they still seem reluctant to look at a sponsorship model. The irony is while I was waiting to join the zoom meeting I got a call from Tony Boudreau (Boudreau Construction owner) who agreed that the committee should look at sponsorships and he even offered to sponsor! I have also offered to sponsor a gig so that is two sponsorships coming forward before they even ask anyone!
Essex council has been talking for months about small businesses and Councillor Steve Bjorkman has been local and supportive of small businesses it would of been interesting to hear his feedback on this topic as he is a restaurant owner and knows many local musicians.
Manager of Parks and Recreation Cynthia Cakebread, “states the intent from the beginning was not to go with paid musicians, we wanted to provide the opportunity for those musicians that have not been paid, never had an opportunity, didn’t know where to start, and we could give them a platform and we could do a little bit of promoting. Spread the small amount of money that this committee has in a broader way. The hope is to get these individuals to have an opportunity to get their feet wet in a performance so they could go off and onward and bigger and better. We weren’t their regular gig, we are really a community based try out- opportunist chance for them to play locally among friendly faces for the very first time. So much as that line between not paying musicians the intent has always been to give them the experience so they could go out and pursue paid performances and more professional and semi professional or higher level amateur opportunities”.
So I guess one of the industries that is being pushed to the brink of extinction during this pandemic will just have to continue to play for free in the Town of Essex Tune up the parks event in hopes that online tips come in. If you are able to- tune in and please if you can send a tip virtually to our performers. The way they used to do business has been gone for almost a year with no end in sight. Not paying for talent does not help encourage more youth to enter the music industry. Some musicians have spent years learning and practicing. We want to encourage individuals to head into the music industry we have to value what they do. Do you work for free?
