I was talking to a manager during a showcase that was complaining about that his band never got out anything from showcase festivals.

He was taking his band to this festival and complained that he didn’t get a record contract. I asked if he got something. Yes, a booking agency got interested and signed the band. He kept complaining that the booking agency didn’t get his band a tour fast enough and had kicked them. He now wanted to go back to a smaller showcase festival in the same country. I wondered if that was wise since I know the Booker and they are the best in that genre and the festival is perfect to be discovered. So why try a smaller one?

Later that night I meet the organizer of the smaller festival and talked about it. Then the organizer told me that they got paid to have that band and told me that they always paid well to get this band into festivals. Their country’s export gave money for that.

We later saw the band. And it really sucked. A mediocre shit band. Of course, they could brag about many festivals, they paid their way in. Of course, the results were not that good. The product was not ready at all.