A local eatery has found itself in a pickle as it tries to calm a social media storm amid claims it was exploiting up-and-coming musicians by offering to pay them with food.
Some of the Bay’s top musicians caused a stir on Facebook when they outed Food Truck Funday organisers, accusing them of unfair business practices.
Kevin Abraham, of the band Folkify, said he was left with a bitter taste in his mouth when the group were recently invited to play at a “fun day” for 45 minutes with “free food and drinks up for grabs” when they were done entertaining.
In a tongue-in-cheek response to food-trucker Tayla Foong, who had sent Abraham a request via social media, Abraham first thanked her for the invite, but quickly added: “We don’t subscribe to the idea of playing for free. But instead, how about you bring your truck around to our next concert . . . and serve everyone there your delicious food for free.”
His response triggered a social media flurry with some users roasting the food company while others came to its defence.
Other musicians share Abraham’s view.
Bay musician and DJ Suliwe Sihlwayi said: “I’ve played at events where [the organisers] were not funded [and were] depending on door fees to pay the artists.
“[Never] did they come up to me and say, ‘Suli, I’m self-funded’ or ‘we didn’t make enough [money] at the door so we can’t pay you, but here’s some food’.”Tayla’s father, Grant Foong, said yesterday he had not seen some of the comments directed at his company.
“What is very important to remember is that this was an informal arrangement. There’s nothing formal about it, we’re all independent, privately owned micro businesses.
“It is a platform for the foodtruckers to showcase themselves,” Foong said.
“[But] there was something missing. We realised we needed music and eventually approached the Red Bull guys who provided us with music equipment as well as DJs.”
“It was all totally for free . . . they just identified with our concept and wanted to be associated with it.”
Of the social media criticism, Foong said musicians usually reached out to him first.
“Up to this day, they’d call and say ‘Grant, can’t I please perform at the event?’ There’s never any talk of payment.
“It’s always been like that because we’re not making any money. The event runs primarily at cost, it’s self-funded. The food-truckers pay a participation fee and that money goes towards running the event, paying for the stage, the sound, the cleaning of the venue [later].
“Just as a gratuity we give them [musicians] a voucher for a meal.”
Foong added: “We charge no entrance fee. We’ve only charged [an entrance fee] once, on our first birthday last year when we brought down a band from Durban.”
Asked why they had not chosen a local band, Foong said: “We had the local guys there to support, but we also wanted to do something different and showcase an emerging national act.”
However, going forward, Foong said, he would take Abraham up on his offer of facilitating a costing model “that will be fair to vendors, visitors and entertainers”.