Musicians threaten garden party boycott
City asks Yk performers to perform for free and with own equipment at farmer's market
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, March 19, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A growing number of Yellowknife musicians are calling for a boycott of the city's summer concerts at Somba K'e Civic Plaza after it issued a newsletter in which it called on artists to attend and "perform for free."
Miriam Sonstenes with fiddle, left, Amanda Blied, guitar, and Shanti Bremer, banjo, of Victoria-based The Sweet Lowdown give Yellowknifers a free concert at the Somba K'e Civic Plaza last summer. Local musicians are calling for a boycott of the city's garden parties after it issued a call for artists asking them to perform to free. - NNSL file photo |
Musicians were also told to "supply all required equipment" for the concerts, which will be held concurrently with the Farmers Market held on Tuesdays in July and August.
The request has been circulating on social media since it appeared in the city's weekly newsletter last week, with various performers describing it as "insulting," "disgusting," "pathetic" and "disrespectful."
Travis Mercredi, who plays in bands Erebus and Terror and Sinister Oculous, while also working as a sound engineer, is one of the musicians calling for the boycott.
He said asking musicians to perform for free at a city-sponsored community event ignores the value that musicians bring to the city.
"You want to talk about community, well the musicians are also part of your community and the arts are a part of the community," said Mercredi in an interview with Yellowknifer.
"They're not rich, supporting them is also supporting the community."
Yellowknife musician Keith Shergold pointed out the hypocrisy of the city's request with his own satirical counter-offer on Facebook.
"Local man seeks city employees to shovel his driveway. City employees must shovel for free and bring own shovel. Please apply early. Positions will be filling fast."
Mercredi, who has volunteered as a board member for Music NWT, the Yellowknife Artist Run Community Centre and Western Arctic Moving Pictures, added that other community festivals, such as Ramble and Ride, provide musicians with an honorarium for performing at the annual Old Town event.
"It's not even about the total dollar amount, it's about respect," he said. "City hall needs to recognize how destructive that is to the arts community."
Mike Filipowitsch, executive director of Music NWT, said he planned to talk with Mayor
Mark Heyck after he received complaints from the organization's membership regarding the call for performers.
After meeting with Filipowitsch, Heyck admitted that the newsletter was poorly worded, saying that it "miscommunicated the intent of the event."
Whereas last year the city held its garden parties in conjunction with the farmer's market, the purpose of its recent call for artists was to transition to a new model for providing entertainment at the farmer's market, where musicians would perform as buskers.
Although musicians would normally have to pay an annual business licensing fee of $200 to busk, Heyck said that fee would be waived for anyone who performs at the farmer's market.
As buskers, musicians would also be able to solicit money from the public.
"I've heard from a couple musicians that you can actually make more money that way than if you were paid a fee to perform," said Heyck.
Mercredi pointed out that there is not a culture of busking in Yellowknife and that he did not know a single musician that would pay $200 to be able to play music in public.
He added that rewording the call for performers as a call for buskers didn't mask the fact that the city expected musicians to provide their services for free.
"They're sincere in their feeling that they don't mean to be insulting but they're being insulting anyways," said Mercredi.
