I am still flabbergasted over that many people in quite high places really don’t understand how a showcase festival works? By now people that work in the industry should know that. I even lecture on Universities for new students around the topic. I guess the problem will be solved with the new kids. Still, for me, it is an annoying problem. So here are the next part Showcase festivals for dummies, why I don’t get paid.

If you read my last text it was about the difference between a festival and a showcase festival, read that if you don’t know the difference. Don’t be shy that you don’t know I just explained the concept to one of the biggest bosses in one of the biggest booking agencies in the world last week.

You can think of a showcase festival as a fair. You know the fairs where they gather under one theme. Like a fair around boats. You have exhibitors showing off their latest boats, engines, lights, life vests. A showcase festival and its conference it’s the same just that you show off things and artists for the music industry.

Do you think that the people organizing a fair are paying the vendors to be there? That they actually paying the boat company to come by to show off their lasts boat to an audience that can buy their product? Of course not, they pay a fee to be able to show their product to new consumers or business people to develop their ideas. It’s the same at a showcase festival. They don’t organize the showcase to pay poor artists a fee. If they would do that, they would
rather start a festival and just take some artists that are selling tickets and it would be a win-win situation. The problem is that a showcase festival is a tool to get to that festival that pays the fee. The showcase festival contains
the people that could be on your team to get that recognition to a real audience so a festival would feel comfortable to pay you a fee.

I know some showcase festivals pay some fees. To be honest it’s such small money you can leave without it. It’s better than some provide cheap or free accommodations for the new bands. But don’t expect them to do that.
What you have to give up though is to treat a showcase festival as a normal festival where you should get your usual fee and rider and accommodation. Sorry, the showcase festival is not a place where you gather new fans. The showcase festival gives you an opportunity to develop your career. Meeting the people that can take you to the next level. The showcase festival offers you their hard-worked network.

Doing that and on top paying unknown artists, a fee is just wrong. It’s like when you work in the PR in the music business and unknown bands think they give me the offer to interview them? Or me calling up a newspaper
telling that they should pay to interview me.

Yes, you can do that when you have a big value. Showcase festivals are after artists that are under construction, they don’t have a value yet. If an artist that actually is that big comes around on a showcase festival it’s for a purpose like they want to showcase to get contacts in a new market they don’t have. Still, they play for the same amount of money as the new ones, nothing at all. Most of the time the showcase festivals say no to already
established artists. Most because the artists don’t understand the difference between a showcase festival and a festival. Actually, it’s usually not artists. In most cases some dumb booking agent that  jumps on everything that has the word festival in its name for an artist that has gone out of fashion a decade ago. Or trying to bring in fees to an artist that really has no value, in reality, to look good in front of the artist or don’t have their shit together economically.

If you have the value to play a normal festival with a fee you really don’t need the showcase festival. If you don’t want to play for free because it’s one of your decisions. Great, you don’t need to play at a showcase
festival. You can by doing gigs in your local area expanding out to be big. The Showcase festival can be the highway out on the international market and an international professional team. See that as the bullet train to an international career. The slow train also takes you out on the international market, it’s cheaper and takes a longer time. This is a choice tough both ways are ok.