IDA UK & Ireland champions lose money if they win... again

[Guest Symatic]

 

another year, another IDA UK & Ireland battle, and yet again the champions of each category are expected to pay for themselves to get to the world finals.

 

something is really not right here.

[DJ Rock Well]

Has it ever been?

 

Such a shit show.

[DJ Rock Well]

When some some fools in a pub (SSS) can buy their battle champ a plane ticket to the world finals but IDA UK & Ireland cant...

[cutdisco]

I've been to IDA poland a few times as a spectator, i have to admit this is a well organised event and i can't think of an event that size in my country

From what i know there is little money(to earn) in this....just the honour of doing it

If i want to organise for example a DMC in my country, i have to pay for everything while organising it and share the income with DMC, plus the organiser needs to pay half the coverage to get the winner to the finals.(or something like that...its been a few years since i checked that, and draw the conclusion its not worth doing it)

So from an organisers point of view...i can imagine competitors pay themselves

 

For IDA, it is the same...its a niche market where almost no money is made but there is probably a honest belief this thing should happen

I'm not defending them, but they have a credible background when it comes to culture....its not exactly corparate people wearing ties and suits

It maybe ugly to have an energydrink as a sponsor or a phone company and people may complain that the previous venue had more atmosphere and the nowadays venue is too posh and has no atmosphere, that it all grew too big and so on......maybe they are right and maybe i see it all wrong.

Also i dont know the terms and conditions from IDA when someone decides to organise one in it's country

 

But yes its a shame....that a winner needs to buy his own ticket comparing to what profits are being made by lesser or no skilled DJ's and companies in a billiondollar industry

[DJ Rock Well]

Cutdisco - IDA in Poland arent really the problem. Personally Im impressed with the scale of event they pull off. The problem is that their national representatives are a complete lottery and the UK&Irekand rep is useless and has been failing year after year. Its always last minute, disorganised, winners dont get prizes, etc.

 

Hes all but killed it with his apathy and when he noticed it wasnt what it could be he blamed everyone else. This thread is worth a read on that front...

 

 

http://www.digitalvertigo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=36926&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1

[cutdisco]

ah okay, sorry my bad

[DJ Rock Well]

No problem mate. You werent to know!

 

But yes, Im afraid this has been going on for while

[Guest Symatic]

theres got to be a better way. It sucks. IDA should be good! all the sponsors who have their names represented on the Champions' winning plaques should be ashamed of themselves. That's basically the whole Industry then.

[Deft]

Frankly if you can't afford to get the contestants to the final then it's not a viable proposition and shouldn't be running.

[kebzer]

As a local organizer of battles & jams in Greece, let me share some inside info (which BTW didn't wanted to do in the FB thread for all the drama it would cause):

 

1. Every international DJ competition has a major sponsor backing it up. Major sponsor = funds

2. The cost of running this international show is the same as the cost of running a local jam. I.e. you only have to pay for the venue.

3. IDA & DMC demand a "participation fee" from all national chapters. I.e. even more funds, which they DO NOT share back, but instead pretend that they use for the main battle (promos, judges etc.).

4. The excuse from gear companies that the scratch demographic is niche is absolute bullshit. This demographic is their major brand ambassadors and constitute for more than half of their sales. It all comes down to who you know, from which company.

5. Every single person involved in these international battles is getting paid for their time/effort. This does not apply of course to the actual participant DJs.

6. There are other battles which offer very considerable prizes: e.g. the Mixfader battle. How is that possible?

7. The national chapters are indeed responsible for providing their winners with commute / accomodation. I managed that for the C2C/COTT with just 2 local sponsors. So anyone saying this could not be "achieved", is just bullshitting people and either he/she is COMPLETELY incapable of running the local chapter (valid for most cases), or he/she is chewing all the money for themselves (happened a few times in the past).

 

The incompetence who is evident in most battles these days is the result of greedy / incapable organizers. I personally have chosen to support only the smaller ones, as I am too old to be treated like a fuckin' 18yo who should be "OK" with exposure. In specific, I am more than frustrated with DMC/IDA and all I can say is FUCK THEM. They run shitty battles, full of politics, with prizes for kids and they can go fuck themselves and get lost in oblivion. We're already in 2019 and I see absolutely no need for these 2 to exist anymore.

 

As for 3style, they can go fuck themselves too. I have absolutely no interest in an EDM/ clap yo' hands/ Jesus posse DJ battle. They chose to be irrelevant to our demographic a couple of years ago with that Barbados dude. So be it. The presence of Craze and others on their judging panel gives them zero credibility whatsoever.

[Guest Symatic]

that's exactly what it seems like Kebzer.

I helped with COTT in the UK and we managed to raise funds to pay for the winner to fly out to berlin for the final. We did it by asking for small amounts from small brands and labels, and there was a major contribution to the international event from one sponsor, which worked out to £150 in the pot for the UK event.

If we could raise more funds, we would have been able to pay for more performers' travel and have their hotels paid for as well. So from that perspective you might ask what the difference is between IDA and COTT - well, the difference is that IDA's world finals are clearly well funded, they are a long-standing brand with established ties to DJing brands, so it doen't seem unreasonalble to expect some of this would trickle down to the local battles in their name.

The other difference is that when the money ran out for COTT, organizers reached into their own pockets to sort stuff out. I know Rasp had to front a lot of time effort and money to make IDA UK happen this year to be fair. But he's not even the main organizer, so it really shouldn't have been him fronting all that cash. Previous years have also been funded by people who just wanted to see it happen. TTM had to pay for Ritchie Ruftones flights and hotels to Poland in previous years becasue IDA or IDA UK wouldnt do it, and he's won the scratch category in the UK multiple times. just doesnt add up.

[Jam Burglar]

Sounds like it's time for the DJs to step up and create their own battles.

[Guest petesasqwax]

Who does run the IDEA UK battle? Do I know them?

[Guest It'sPhilFromThursdays]

George Gjiggy Francis he be on facebook. He's a nice enough guy, i met him when i went to Poland with Paul for the finals, but yeah this seems like a shambles when us bunch of slackers managed to divvy up some bux for the SSS COTT winner to travel out.

 

As to whether you know him or not i cannot tell you this as i don't have access to your brain's memories (any more), you must work this out yourself.

[Guest petesasqwax]

Damn it, Phil - CSBBQ done broke the brain connection!

[Guest Symatic]

yeah George has his heart totally in the right place, and the situation with sponsors blagging our scene has led to this as much as poor organization has.
He is super sound guy, handed a shitty situation and given no support from the brands involved.

[Dubba Dutchdj]

If turntablists (the type who actually get shit done that is) were running these battles it would be a different story I feel.

I do have to say that when I did IDA G jiggy was nothing but amazing and really went above and beyond to take care of me. I did have my own apprehensions pre meeting him in RL as from our online chats and stuff Ive heard it seemed clear to me that he wasn't really a proper head from the scene. But after meeting him in person I'd say he does have a big heart but maybe doesn't "quite" have the handle on the scene that any of us would have.

[kebzer]

This.

 

If turntablists (the type who actually get shit done that is) were running these battles it would be a different story I feel.

[sndrsklr]

From my experience the industry is only interested in your events when you´re big enough... and that´s the point when you actually don´t need them anymore. So basically they want you do to do all the work and then jump in to grab the spotlight. Even though it´s a tough game for both ends not a single brand seems to be interested in investing into grassroot work but instead they fight for a spot in an already overfed event where people will hardly remember any of the many sponsors (anyone who watched the live stream of this years IDA finals knows what I´m talking about).

 

I´ve seen a more efficient approach with people I know who organize b-boy events and battles who don´t go begging at companies for money but rather connected with city and state officials over the many years they´ve been doing it and getting a share of fundings that are meant for cultural events. If you sell/present it right you have a good chance of getting funded by them (at least partly) but as like with anything else it won´t happen instantly and might take a few approaches/years to get there. I know it´s a different thing for b-boys and turntablists since b-boying/dancing has a way bigger market but thinking about options that are not as obvious as DJ brands will be helpful in the long run. But you need to plan way ahead since fundings are usually planned/spent at the beginning of a year already, so spontaneous events will never reach a professional level, especially when it comes to sponsoring.

 

And from own experience combining events is extremely helpful. One of my sessions happened during a popular jazz festival and the turn up was amazing, we had families with kids checking it out and showing interest that would have never shown up if it was a regular scratch nerd event. Especially jazz heads are very open for this kind of stuff but obviously I´m not talking about the hardcore traditionalists that you have in any genre/craft/artform. They can go fuck a monkey on a tree if they don´t like evolution of things instead of starting drama. But that´s a different story...

[Guest Symatic]

yeah been thinking about applying for funding to do a battle or showcase/workshop event. Rasp did apply for IDA UK but got turned down, but maybe you need to go big to show how much represesntation there is

[sndrsklr]

Playing the international card in terms of connecting with people across countries and especially youth is always a good selling point for fundings, especially EU fundings. An IDA qualifier would theoretically fit that description...

[Guest Symatic]

especially EU fundings.

Awkward subject right now but yeah here in UK if you want Arts Council funding they want only 10% of tour dates to be outside of the uk.... so I'd have to do 9 battles in uk countries, and one in, say, Ireland.... kinda vaguely possible i guess

[sndrsklr]

I know but since we’re all governed by morons and criminals there’s a good chance that nothing will change for another while.

[Mista_Ed]

Good luck getting EU funding for DJ battles lol

[cutdisco]

He does makes a point, the EU has reserved about 2 billion euros(annually) for projects to support an exchange of culture

Unfortunately it's 'protected' by a wall of burocracy, so it's almost made impossible to apply to such.

The grants for movie/documentary related projects are crazy

 

There are so many rules and regulations that you need to obey to and even there are companies providing workshops on 'how to apply'....which prooves you are entering a world of Kafka...also its peoples jobs to write proposals for programs...they never let that go

We did research some years ago to do a project in Moldova, which was aimed at the youth, basically a project as an exchange of music/graffiti/b-boying but it never got to that

Either your organisation needs to be certified, or at minimum have some recommendations/credentials, also you need to work with an organisation locally which has no ties with the people you are willing to work with.

My local friends sort of told me the same, its either impossible to apply for such thing, in some cases embassy's might donate some to a project.

So in the end...it looks so nice all these 'with help from the EU projects'' but from my point of view the ones who are in control, stay in control and are not willing to share(the money)

Edited December 29, 2018 by cutdisco