It Seems Everyone at BreakOut West in Edmonton Was Paid Except the Musicians
Some protests broke out in Edmonton at this year’s BreakOut West. From MetroNews:
A musicians’ union led a protest against a major Edmonton music festival Thursday.
Graham Guest, a professional musician and board member with the local Canadian Federation of Musicians chapter, said it’s “unreasonable” that Breakout West Music Fest is not paying performers for its event, which features 60 acts playing at 10 venues this weekend, as well as conferences and industry networking events.
“Everyone involved in these conferences is getting paid at varying levels,” Guest said, picketing with about three dozen others outside Sutton Place hotel downtown.
“The hardworking people that clean the toilets and wash the floors at the end of the night are going to make some money, but … the musicians are going to perform and they’re not going to make anything.”
He noted that some are paying “huge” costs to travel from across Western Canada for the showcase.
Danny Fournier of Edmonton’s Oddball Productions followed up with this post:
The Never Ending Argument – Playing for ‘exposure’
Thanks to an attempted protest at this past weekend’s Break Out West, I’ve seen a handful of people discussing this topic online. People have been sharing the articles (links below) that have been written and throwing in their two cents. Everything I have read has had some interesting comments and great arguments from a variety of different perspectives. I’ve been asked a couple times for my thoughts on the topic and at first I was going to stay away, but I then I noticed there is one perspective that hasn’t been shared that I think needs to be.
Read the whole post here.
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