As most of you know, I'm a big champion of Relay for Life, having held events both at my club and on my home island. I have also donated 100% of my tips from several Saturday sets to Relay. I am a member of the Spinners for Life team but will volunteer my services for any team that asks. Except one. I was asked to wrap up a four-day extravaganza of entertainment sponsored by another Relay team. The scheduled slot was later than I usually work on a weeknight, but the cause was worthy and I agreed to a 6-9PM slot on Monday.
I arrived at the event venue about an hour before my scheduled set to listen to the live musician preceding me and send out notices to my Groups. Quite a few folks TP'ed in immediately, since I told them that the live act was awesome (he was). About 10 minutes before 6PM, I was informed by one of the event promoters that the musician would be playing an extra half hour because "he does 90 minutes". Obviously, I had already sent notices, etc. No apology was given. I IMed the Group to advise them of my later start time and continued to enjoy the live show.
There were about 25 people at the venue in addition to the folks that I had brought. I should have taken it as an omen, but at 6:23 my cable went out. I switched to my backup DSL ISP and was back at the venue by 6:25. The live act ran until 6:38, when I was notified that my stream was live. Within 10 minutes, the event promoters and their friends left. I didn't get an IM to the effect of "hey, RL calls, we're heading out, thanks for playing" or anything of the sort. The promoter said in open chat "I'm heading to X, anyone want a TP?" No mention of the DJ who was (finally) spinning, no thanks, no apology for the delays, nothing. SOB's TPed the entire audience out.
Well, tell ya what, next time you ask for a favor, the answer will be "fuck no". There is no excuse for abandoning an act who you have booked to perform. My RL schedule is hectic, and my DJ slots are usually booked at least 2 weeks in advance. My time is just as valuable as that of the live musicians. I have no tolerance for club owners who fail to do their part in promoting me, and an event coordinator who does not even extend the courtesy of attending my performance shows an arrogance and disrespect that is noteworthy. Any further bookings from you will require my standard appearance fee UP FRONT.
The set was not a total disaster, however, thanks to some loyal listeners who stuck it out & stayed for the set. They basically had a private DJ, since their requests went in queue immediately! A thousand thanks, I ended up having fun after all. And between their tips (which I paid into the kiosk) and donations sent by those who could not attend, Relay collected another L$3000. The other good news is, I have sets scheduled every day this week, so check my profile for times & venues and come on out!!
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