Music Fest Memories - volunteer concerts I've organized

in Steem-BRU (BY-RU-UA)3 years ago (edited)

The Music Fest Memories


I'm going to write about charity 16 concerts in 8 different clubs, which I organized for my friend, 28.06.13 in Bielsko-Biala in Poland.


Here is relation from the concerts. Turn on English subtitles in the settings


Friend's disease



My friend from the University, Marzena Erm was unlucky enough to get a cancer (Hodgkin's lymphoma) in a very young age. She remained opthymistic, but the treatment which her doctor suggested was not refunded so suddenly she was forced to collect 50 thousand dollars on her own, which was impossible to achieve without help of the other people.

She started to write a blog "Rakija - czyli jak upijam sie zyciem". She was describing there her illness and all the problems related to it, but was doing it in very unconventional way. Even when she was writing about the worst experiences, she was doing it in a comedian style - Hodgkin, the name of her disease, was presented as the possesive, toxic husband which doesnt want to leave her and makes her life very difficult.


Helping without the money



When I read her blog for the very first time, I was a 24 years old student. I didn't have much money to donate but I really wanted to help somehow. I realized that besides the money, I can offer my time and creativity so I put on auction myself on Allegro (Polish eBay). I offered that for one whole day I can do anything for the person who will offer the biggest amount of money. I could help in cleaning, become a nanny, cook something or just spend some time with another person and talk. I could do anything, except of illegal or sexual things. All the money from that auction I was going to send directly to Marzena's account.

My auction became viral. It was shared in social media over 300 times, television and radio stations started to invite me and Marzena to make some interviews.

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me making the radio program for RMF.FM

One of the biggest polish radio stations, RMF.FM won the auction and bought my time for a bit over 3500 USD and made me to prepare live radio program for that money. We were very happy, because every interview, every event were a hope that Marzena will get the money which she needs. People started to donate some money to her, but after few weeks people forgot about her.


Idea with the multiple concerts



Then we decided to make one more event to collect missing money. Marzena wrote on her blog that Hodgkin is like the toxic husband who hurts her and doesn't want to leave, so we decided to make a big "divorce party", divorce her with the illness by collecting remaining amount to finish her treatment (Kind of word game. It sounds funnier and smarter in Polish)

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crowd is dancing to one of 16 concerts we organized that day

Radio which won the auction before, helped us to spread the news. They used their influences to send us to the biggest private TV station in Poland, TVN, where in one of the morning programs we were talking about the future event. National advertisement for free.


TV program record - advertising our concerts

Then we started to look for the volunteers.


Looking for Volunteers



First we needed to find the bands which would agree to play for free. In the end of the day we found 16 music bands - some of them were friends of the friends, mostly from the Music Department at the University of Silesia, others texted us after the TV interview. I even motivated my husband who was playing on hurdy-gurdy, to make a folk concert that day. There was also one big star, Janusz Kohut, very talented pianist, which we visited at his home and asked for help.

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Janusz Kohut - the biggest star we managed to include

In the meantime, my University rewarded me for an ethical attitude. At the award ceremony, I met the mayor of Bielsko-Biała and obtained a permit to raise money in public places. Usually, bureaucracy requires a lot of effort to obtain such a permit, and I managed to do it in one conversation. I wanted to take the opportunity so I decided to make it in that city.

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Probably making the concerts in the bigger city would be more successful, but clubs were crowded anyway

Now, in retrospect, I think maybe it was a mistake. Bielsko-Biała is not a very large city. Presumably, we could have raised more money if we had organized concerts in Krakow or Warsaw. Unfortunately, at that point, I was afraid to think so boldly.

We already had the date, place and bands. The next step was to find some clubs. There was no problem with that. I prepared special volunteer contracts, went with them to Bielsko-Biała and visited selected clubs. In the vast majority of places my idea was accepted with a great deal of optimism. Only a few clubs refused to take part in the event.

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over 100 volunteers helped to organize the event

With all the data in hand, it was time to prepare the posters. A friend of mine who was a graphic designer took care of it for free. The posters looked like this:

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My friend, Justyna Kąkol, offered to help and eventually became a co-organizer of the event. Thanks to her acquaintances, we managed to find a printing house that printed several hundred posters for free. A dozen or so volunteers hung them up in various places throughout the region.
Justyna also found a restaurant that offered a free meal to all musicians and volunteers that day. Over a hundred dinners.

A group of students from the University also offered to organize a short animation show in one of the clubs.


First problems



Two weeks before the event, we had our first crisis. Two acoustics decided not to participate in the event. As the acoustics were also volunteers, I didn't have much opportunity to convince them to stay. I panicked. I only knew one acoustician, but he lived over 400 km from Bielsko-Biała. He also did not have his own equipment.

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There is no concerts without acoustician

I contacted him. At first he said that he could help, but I will have to find the equipment on my own, but after a few days he wrote to me that he had made a few calls - he has the equipment and will help for free. To this day, I am very grateful to him for that.

During the event itself, there were a few problems.

  • The piano in the club where the biggest star was supposed to play was not in tune. My partner was going to a friend's house and transporting another instrument.
  • the police arrested one of the volunteers because the officers had not been informed about the event. I had to react and luckily it was fixed very soon.
  • At the beginning I panicked as there was not too many people in the clubs. People came after few hours though.

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finding the piano in 45 minutes was one of the biggest problems


Summary



On that day, we managed to collect PLN 4,000, but several investors heard about Marzena and offered larger payments. Ultimately, the total amount of money raised was PLN 175,000 (45,500 USD).

Honestly, I didn't listen to any concert that night. I ran from one club to the next, checking if everything was fine. It were the most exciting and the most important concerts in my life though.

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concerts were great. At least that's what I've heard ;)

Sure, I made a few mistakes, but it's hardly surprising - I was an inexperienced student who was trying to organize something very big. The fact that it worked out was only thanks to the volunteers and friends who were there with me that day.

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Thank you for reading.
If you have any question, feel free to ask me anything in the comments below
All the photos and videos were made for me by the volunteers and I have all the rights to publish it here.

@papi.mati

Sort:  
 3 years ago 

You are a person with a big heart! Organizing such an event is far from the easiest job, but you did it. Thanks a lot for the story!

I believe that helping others is in the nature of human being. We all are good, we just use different tools for our actions. I was lucky enough that I knew how to organize concerts because I wanted to become event manager and that I had such a great friends in around.

WE, as the group of 100 volunteers, did something great, not me ;)

 3 years ago 

Awesome! The Lord God must be pleased with his creation in you. Compassion and active citizenship work wonders. Thank you for your humanity. What are you doing now?

Thank you for your kind words!

Few years after that I was travelling around the world and as the result now I'm living in Argentina.
I created unconventional family, working by taking care of home, cooking, cleaning and... writing on steemit since few weeks.

I was working in many places, in many jobs since then. Now covid doesn't allow me to find anything.

You can read about me here - in my introduction

I have very ambitious plan to create in the future ecofriendly farm which will also be the shelter for the immigrants and refugees who arrive to Argentina without the money. Like the first temporary home before they will find any job. You can read about it here

Good evening. May life multiply what you give of yourself. It is gratifying and sobering to know stories like the one you have lived and shared in this contest with us. I value very much the people who help others through their efforts and organization, we all have something to give. What great creativity you have and the team that accompanied you. Exemplary, in crises we should not be paralyzed to receive or give up, but see what we can do. Thank you very much.

What the wonderful words. Thank you very much for that comment!

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