When Paul Uribe was asked by a local event promoter to perform with his band Mariachi Capital at the Party At The People’s House mini-festival at city hall in late June, he was so taken by the event’s anti-hate crime intent that he discounted the group’s normal rate of $100 per musician, per hour rate to $80 per performer.
What he, and many other performers for the day-long event, didn’t know was a 2023 city policy instituted to help local musicians should have caused the four-person lineup to receive $800 total, or more than double the $320 they’d agreed to.
“I said it looks like a good cause… inclusion, democratic society, I love it. I said I’d certainly be honored to partake and help out. I actually gave them a discount just for the cause that it was,” said Uribe, who sings, plays trumpet and acts as business manager for the band. “I’m not aware that there is a minimum for any city events, and then what constitutes a city event. If I would’ve known that I wouldn’t have given a discount.”
Of the more than a dozen acts who performed at Party At The People’s House on June 28, the Austin Monitor spoke with representatives of three groups who confirmed their negotiations with Almost Real Things, the city-contracted promotion company for the event, were centered around paying less than the $200 hourly minimum that musicians are required to receive for city events.
This was the second year Almost Real Things was hired by the city to promote and manage the festival, and received a $50,000 contract that was paid out of the city budget as a component of the “We All Belong” campaign intended to raise awareness about hate crimes. The company’s proposal for the event specified $5,000 for musicians, with an additional budget line of $3,000 in in-kind musician services.
City staff involved with the festival and representatives from Almost Real Things said their negotiations for artists assumed the city’s $200 minimum could be prorated, given that most performances took less than an hour, not including travel time, parking and setup. The 2023 Council resolution requires that musicians at city-sponsored events be paid at least $200 per hour, per musician for groups of up to six performers, $150 per hour, per musician for groups of seven to 10 people, and a flat $1,500 total for groups of more than 10 members.
While the language doesn’t explicitly rule out prorating the fee for performances of less than an hour, city staff throughout the years have treated $200 as the minimum per-person payout for any city-sponsored performance, including the short lunchtime music showcase that takes place during every City Council meeting.
“We hold ourselves to the standards set by the resolution. That’s something that we truly believe in. It was not specifically stipulated in our contract,” Zach Zulch, a co-founder of Almost Real Things, said when asked about the company’s payments to artists for the event. “Because it was contracted to us, (city staff) are no longer the ones directly paying anybody. The resolution is a guideline at that point, and not a codified law.”
Almost Real Things’ social media about the event included this post: “Producing a mini-festival with a full stage, pro lighting & sound, 14 performance groups, 30+ vendors, installations, and activities for nearly 3,000 people? That usually runs $150K-$250K. We made it happen on just $50K, and most of that went directly to paying artists and arts facilitators.”
Of the city’s $50,000 payment to the company, $12,000 was budgeted directly to the company for “coordination of all artists, staff and deliverables. Communication liason between We All Belong, our team and contractors,. Event management and logistics, implementation of marketing campaign and promotion.”
Event staffing was paid for out of a separate $7,500 budget item.
Nagavalli Medicharla, chair of the Music Commission, said the city policy was created to set a clear minimum compensation floor of $200 per person for musicians playing at any city-sponsored event. Via text, she told the Monitor: “I don’t see how that (event) can be different. It’s the law.”
Zulch said he’d asked an attorney affiliated with the city for guidance on using a prorated rated as part of his negotiation framework for musicians, with the tiered payouts for acts with many members creating some ambiguity about how rigid the rules are.
“I talked to this lawyer and made sure that, even though it says $1,500 (total for larger acts) is it per hour or is it total? Because my question initially was if it’s total, does that mean… you could book an upper band for eight hours and have 20 members and the minimum that you pay them is $1,500? Not that we would do that, but I was confused about how it was all supposed to work.”
Alicia Dean, a manager in the city’s Public Information Office and lead organizer for the festival since its launch in 2023, said the city’s policy on musician payment was referenced repeatedly in planning meetings with Almost Real Things and anyone else involved.
“One of the things I do in our first planning meeting is say, ‘Hey, our minimum rate for entertainers at this event is $200 per musician per hour.’ And I say that up front because that often determines how many bands you could book, the size of the bands they can book, and the set times,” she said, noting that her interpretation of the rule was that payouts for shorter performances could be prorated.
“My understanding in having the conversations with Zach is they did prorating based on that rate, but it was based on what the minimum is. So I think that’s where maybe some of this disconnect happened. It’s a difference in how we interpret that. I think folks are saying it’s a minimum of $200 if you just come perform, and whether it’s 10 minutes or an hour, you get $200,” she continued.
With the festival’s future up in the air as Dean and her team hand the We All Belong campaign off to the city’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, Dean said there will likely be further clarifications and safeguards put in place regarding payments for artists at all city events.
“Should this event continue, one thing I will tell them is, ‘Here’s what you might wanna consider doing moving forward,’ in terms of how you’re providing information to the vendor and your expectations on minimum pay for performers at the event,” she said. “What is sad to me is that anyone is walking away thinking that we wanted to do anything other than pay people fairly and pay people based on our minimums.”
Noah Mosgofian, musical director and a board member for Austin Samba Drum And Dance, said he and the more than two dozen members who performed at the event opted to accept the lower rate offered because of the festival’s mission and purpose, even after questioning the pay rate falling out of line with the city’s requirements.
“When we brought it to their attention, they were like, ‘Well, you guys didn’t do a full hour,’ but I don’t think the first hour is prorated. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that, OK, maybe they just didn’t know how the thing works,” he said. “When they offered us kind of a low amount of money, we said ‘Maybe it’ll be fun, and and we’ll do this thing, and maybe we’ll get a good relationship out of it.’ It’s an unfortunate reality that in Austin people will have an event, and everybody wants musicians and performers to give their services for free.”
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