'Bootleg' concert organisers blame Government for events deemed 'total scam'
'Bootleg' concert organisers blame Government for events deemed 'total scam'
Following a series of bootleg concerts which left attendees “cringing and laughing”, the events elusive promoters have finally come forward.
These guys charged $150 for a Lord of the Rings & Hans Zimmer symphonic experience, but actually provided a shitty orchestra that played sound-a-like knock-offs. Then when people started wanting their money back they claim everybody loved it and that the NZ government is somehow crippling culture and arts. What a bunch of dicks.
The company blamed the New Zealand Government for “crippling culture and arts” by not granting their performers visas in time for the tour.
An Immigration NZ spokesperson confirmed Star Entertainment Gmbh filed requests for 47 people eligible for entry as they were from visa waiver countries, along with five visitor visas on May 9 – just three days before its first concert on May 12.
"We gave them less than 3 days and they didn't grant us 47 entry visas and 5 visitor visa in time, it's their fault"
Weird. Now I'm interested to know more about the economics of supposedly flying 47 people in for a small handful of concerts, after venue hire and ticketing and accommodation and advertising and production costs.
Well, production costs don't seem to have been very significant.
Productions like Les Mis at the same types of venues had comparable ticket costs, albeit for longer runs, and from my understanding most of the cast (not sure about crew and others) were locals and largely worked for free.
from my understanding most of the cast (not sure about crew and others) were locals and largely worked for free.
Why? Was it run by a non-profit or something?
Source was that I know at least a couple of people in it, but supposedly it's not that uncommon. People audition and donate time voluntarily because they really want to act in something like that, but maybe someone here who's been involved could comment with more authority.
I assume there's not a lot of margin with all the other costs, though. If you were going to pay the whole cast for all their many months of practice/rehearsal time it'd be very expensive.
This story is completely insane.
Were these the same guys that brought over the "monster truck" rally?