Last September 2009, I was talking with somebody about my band performing for the Fiesta. He said there shouldn’t be any problem as he is part of the committee. A week later he came back to me a bit embarrassed with the suggestion that we could play at 10am but we had to enter a competition and pay money to get in. The amount involved was approximately $120.
I was told that If we win the competition we would (be allowed) to play on the main stage. If not, we would be given a 15-minute spot in the smaller stage. I later found out that it was not even a stage but a small area at the back where we had to provide our own sound system.
We wanted to entertain the Filipino community and as our group normally gets paid to perform, we said no to this ridiculous proposal. I mentioned it to one of the main sponsors who said he would take care of it. So all was set and we were told that we would be sent our tickets.
Closer to date, I was talking to another musician and she was surprised we got in. She mentioned that her band had a bad experience with the fiesta organisers. They joined the competition on the previous year and won first place. They were not given the prize money, had been asked for parking fee and had to pay for their entrance fee. She sounded really upset about the whole experience.
On the day of the event, we were asked for our tickets and the guards said there were no tickets for us. They had no idea we were coming. I rang my dear friend who then had to chase the organiser for the free tickets. We couldn’t park closer to the stage. Two friendly white Australian guards led us thru the back gate after finding out we were playing. When we were setting up, the sound engineer didn’t even know we were performing. I had to contact my friend again who was getting annoyed by the whole thing. We couldn’t get hold of “the big boss” but since my friends were there, the sound engineer “allowed” us to perform.
After all the drama, all we wanted to do was to relieve ourselves from stress — yes, by eating. We roamed the whole area and we noticed how disorganised the whole place was. There were a lot of food stalls serving pretty much the same thing. There was no stall at all to promote tourism or other cultural activities. I started to wonder if Filipinos are all about food… and oh, TFC (The Filipino Channel).
It was a far cry from the 3-day Latin Fest in Darling Harbour – for free. Other festivals, just months prior to ours (Indonesian, Italian, Chinese, etc) were either free or only charged between $5 and $10 entrance fee. Our Fiesta Cultura charged $20! How can we attract other cultures? Isn’t the main purpose to promote the Filipinos and our culture? I actually questioned this on Pinoy Radio last year when I heard that the “donation” from the Fiesta proceeds to the Philippines was only a small fraction of what they were getting. I also heard from a very reliable source that when the organisers travel to the Philippines to give the so-called donation, they were treated like royalties. Who is policing these donations?
A week after the fiesta, I rang my friend to get a copy of the video, only to be told that I had to talk to “the big boss” because the video is owned by the “committee.” How come we can’t have access (to the video)? I didn’t even bother calling him as I refuse to be a victim of this blatant highway robbery.
– ? Bless Salonga (by email)
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