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I would like to bring to the attention of the community the unscrupulous actions of some venues that claim the right to use community based events to line their own pockets. Other venues register and pay for the right (or sponsor a group) to hold events during Midsumma, ChillOut and even as recent as HiBearnation, for instance. But some other venues then take it upon themselves or feel they have the right to jump on the bandwagon and use these events as part of their own regular weekly events held in their venue. Holding an "After Party" or [taking] a regular night such as a Pool Comp (that was going to be held anyway) then branding it with an organisation's or community group's name is totally wrong. On the same note it should also be up to event organisers to police this now very common and recurring action that some venues seem to take on. There used to be a time in Melbourne when, if a venue was holding a charity event to raise money for a worthwhile community group, the other venues would support the event by just holding their normal night so as not to detract punters from the venue that was holding the event. One venue recently advertised that a percentage of the night's door charge was partly going to a "charity", then two weeks later they actually advertised that the money from the cover charge on that night went to help a band that performed at the venue to complete a record they were producing. How was that a charity and what body of the community did it help? Are proceeds from the sale of the record going to our community? In a recent issue of MCV there was an article about Slave Market and Mooning. These are events that are well known around Australia and in some cases internationally and are held to raise a lot of money for decent people in our community who need a hand to survive day-to-day. But you get other venues that don't see the picture and only want to get people through the door to profit themselves and we lose the purpose of what we can do to help each other. There are venues out there that support each other and respect each other for what they do, and the clientele they cater to, but it only takes one venue to destroy what we have and what we are trying to do. Tony Collingwood
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Opinion 
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