I just received the city’s budget for last weekend’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony. It is:
Expenses
Promotions: 12,800
Production: 4,750
Security: 2,760
Transportation: 520
Entertainment: 19,100
Elecricat, Streets & Roads, City staff: 1,650
Tents, stage heater, fencing: 1,770
Tree install, trimming, removal: 3,500
Fireworks: 3,150
Total: $50,000Revenue
HRM: 30,000
Corporate Sponsors: 20,000
Total: $50,000
The “expenses” were for a band, for Santa, for a soloist singer and for the Dreamworks characters Shrek, Fiona and “a rapping fairy.” City spokesperson Shaune MacKinlay tells me the entertainment budget can not be broken out into how much each entertainer received because “there is a non disclosure clause in the contract with the agent,” i.e. Dreamworks.
It is beyond absurd that payments of this sort are not a matter of public record, but this is normal operating procedure at the city.
I have no idea what a band, Santa and a soloist get paid. I can’t imagine Santa works for more than a couple of hundred bucks, and the soloist and band probably not much more. I’d guess Dreamworks got something like $17,000 for the pleasure of promoting their next movie and DVD sales.
On the “revenue” side, the corporate sponsors did not include Dreamworks, says MacKinlay. Listed on the brochure for the event as corporate sponsors are Oland Brewery, Rona, Atlantic Superstore, WestJet, Delta Barrington, the Chronicle Herald, C100 and Heritage Gas.
This article appears in Nov 24-30, 2011.
“… absurd that payments of this sort are not a matter of public record, but this is normal operating procedure at the city.” Smile & wave fellas, smile and wave.
If this is true Peter Kelly is even more of a SPED than I previously thought. This is like a TV channel paying a company for the “privilege” of being able to show their ads.
WE paid for their advertising? WTF? Should they pay for it?
It wasn’t even the “real” Shrek either. And I’m pretty sure that wasn’t Krusty:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj6d5qav…
Anybody else losing faith in HRM council?
http://www.sphereentertainment.com/content…
Looks like we aren’t the only suckers….
Also disturbing is the slick flyer distributed in the schools. I wonder: were there Shrek themed toys in happy meals that week? Pssht—One giant commercial for Dreamworks.
PS: Sodeypop, please do not use SPED as a pejorative.
There are no production companies in halifax or nova scotia that could have put on a show for the kids? We had to rent one from toronto? fuck.
why couldn’t santa have turned on the christmas tree during the parade of lights. I mean, I assume santa doesn’t get an appearance fee whenever he slides down a christmas tree, and he was RIGHT THERE! and it was a parade of LIGHTS! this holiday is becoming a joke.
uh, I mean chimney.
Peter Kelly is in the Society of Piping Engineers and Designers, because you aren’t a big enough dick to mean the other meaning, right Sodey?
Hello Tim,
I went through all this quickly but it was my understanding that the whole entertainment package was booked through an agent (Sphere entertainment, Toronto) and that they are the “agents” in question not Dreamworks. The entertainment budget number can not be broken down by HRM because it was a package deal.
If I’m right, it would have been much more honest for them to just say they arbitrarily hired a Toronto party act and flew them in. Why they would do this in a community overflowing with talent waiting for nice opportunities like this is kind of beyond me. By reporting to you as they did they give the vague impression that at least part of the entertainment budget was local. Is that right? Unless they were trying to set a record to see how fast they could make our tax dollars “spin-off” out of the province this makes no sense.
If anyone else has more on this, or if I have any element wrong I’d like to stand corrected because I think this is grossly poor management and vision.
I missed the “Rapping Fairy”. What was his street name? P-Prissy or Flitty-Cent?
“PS: Sodeypop, please do not use SPED as a pejorative.”
Don’t get your panties in a bunch sweetie.
I’m pretty sure the Herald’s Parade of Lights is run by a volunteer committee, HRM just covers the costs (and probably doesn’t notice things like “hey, why are these people hiring a company from Toronto” etc etc) Some parent on the committee probably has kids who like Shrek so it seemed like a good idea. Seriously, I bet that’s how we got stuck with Shrek and a “rapping fairy”. Any bets?
And then, when the artists in the community raise issues around culture funding, the Mayor tells everyone how much HRM spends on cultural events, like this.
And don’t forget that a chunk of that $12,800 went towards carpet-bombing school kids with fliers with Shrek on them…