Tags: Czech Republic | economics | humanifesto

So just the other day this guy says to me, "Hey, you guys need to get behind the scene more, be supportive of people trying to... blah, blah, blah. The guy next to him was trying to get a free advertisement for some party, offering to put my name on his flyer or whatnot in exchange.

I explained that we're not trying to get more people to buy a free magazine. I was put on the spot; feeling like I should do something... when he said "excuse me", and turned to a nice dressed woman behind him. Then he broke out with a bunch of flyers and stuff with a heap of corporate logos on it. The lady he needed to talk to was about to give him some cash for sponsorship!

"Well I gotta use the money to make flyers and posters," he said to me as my jaw dropped. I said 'Yeah that cost money, but we put out the equivalent of five times your posters and flyers every month, why should it be free?"

Our homely little economy has made us all crabs in a bucket. We try to get out, and keep pulling each other down. Everything is tied to 'sponsors' of one sort or another; even Hostomice reportedly has one. By and large, the 'scene' while on occasion providing us with a quality of entertainment, and performances for us to feel gratitude, because they don't have to take those risks, is often thinking about the sponsorship money and what they can take home at the end of the night.

Hey it's business, the free market and all that, cool, but what support do they need then, if they are just business people as well. Only about half of all the party promoter's ads in this magazine have been paid and more than that were very late. A case in point was the Underground On Strike party.

Using the name from a successful event in the past was the first clue to the nature of Intergalactica Company's interest in the 'scene'.

Thousands of kids show up and dropped 200Kc of their money to get in, and the sound system sucks, 100% Isis is already cancelled a week earlier, and they are finding out that the star of the show Juan Atkins is not gonna show up either. Do they lower the price, give money back or make a big announcement.

No, they just hope that the stupid customers, YOU that is, won't notice that they didn't bring the sole reason that they charged you such a high price. Did I mention the sound system sucked, and there was no decoration? Where did all YOUR money go then!

Not to the people they bought advertisements from, to get you to go to their party, because those people did not get PAID, or a phone call even. When asked about it, Intergalactica, the same firm who used to work with the most popular and most money making parties in town (you guess who) which also didn't pay it's bills, said that there was NO MONEY! Where did all YOUR MONEY go then?

Anyway, it's only one case out of many, but the worst example since that Music Temple asshole gave us a bad name with his lame party. The point is, if they are a business, and we are not the Catholic Church, then the 'scene' that needs so much support needs to show respect for the media that supports is. I don't know of any other foundation to build a 'community' on.

Peace.