Possible SCAMS aim at musicians and artists in BC

It is senseless for some people to trick passionate musicians and artists for money and benefits. Unfortunately I regret I recently had a close personal experience of almost being scammed. As Epic Marble Project's event planner, I would like to discuss this to our readers and hopefully this would help you to be careful of suspicious situations and beware of your rights as a performer.

My band LOCUS was contacted by a charity group in BC to perform and help raise money for a recent construction project that would save lives in the future. The performance was scheduled in a well-known Richmond public centre on a weekend. My band believe in giving back to our society with what we do best, and therefore has agreed to fill out an application to perform for the show. Later we were asked to "pay" $120 donation for each performer in our group before a deadline, or else we won't get a chance to be on stage.

First of all, as a musician performer, we have in the past "donated" our talent, passion and personal free time for charity performances. Secondly, performers are usually "paid" to perform, not "paying" to perform. Performing for free for charity shows already means you have donated your performance fees towards the charity event. Third of all, the meaning of "donation" is to "give what one's capable", and therefore must have absolutely no fixed rates of payment of donation.

So what happened to my band???

We refused to pay the amount required and did not perform.

Now, the interesting thing was, just 2 days before the show, another staff from the organization called me and thanked us for participating in the show, and asked me when we will be performing so she can come and watch. I told her we have no money to pay for the standard performance fee "donation" so we are skipping out on this show. She was shocked and told me she did not know anything about the fixed rate of donation issue.

I did not go watch that show the day because I was busy.

I don't know if anyone performed, and I don't know if they "paid" anything.

If you have any questions about any suspicious show details, it is always a good thing to consult someone in the industry, or feel free to email us.