Monday, April 02, 2012

Calling foul

Paul Magrs has finally called foul and pulled out of a literary festival for which he agreed to do workshops over four days for no fee whatever, because he has now discovered they are not even prepared to pay his travel expenses! On his blog he replicates the excellent email he sent delineating the reasons why this is simply just not an acceptable way to treat the primary providers, the writers.

Sheenagh Pugh elaborates on her blog, unpicking the fake reasons of economics with which we are insulted on such occasions by festivals charging huge ticket prices to the public.

I urge you to read both blogs.


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2 comments:

Vanessa Gebbie said...

I am delighted that hopefully, the ice is cracking. Although I fear that there will always be others who will fill the unpaid slots. These festivals are making money - or they have grants to enable them to function. They pay the people who supply the lunches, the venues, the chairs. They charge the visitors, and the booksellers make a profit, albeit a small one - but still.
How come a situation has arisen such that the creators of the work that the visitors want to see, hear, and enjoy - are the only ones who are insulted like this?

9:02 am
Sue Guiney said...

Thank you for this. The 2 blogs enunciate the reasoning so well. They give me the courage to say no.

9:30 am

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