Keep Sky & Reclaim the Beats Out of German Court
Donation protected
Reclaim the Beats Festival highlights marginalized, Black, Brown and Queer music artists in genres that were created by their own communities but that have been heavily gentrified in the music industry. By supporting this to be a successful campaign, you succeed in keeping Sky, the organizer of this community event out of German court system and stopping the government from knocking on her door and taking her things to recover festival debt. #RTBCourtFree
STORY
In 2016 and 2017, I created and organized a community event in Berlin, Germany called Reclaim the Beats Festival.
As a musician myself, this was my way of contributing to the music scene that I wished to see. I'm happy with the platform I was able to offer to the amazing artists who we were able to shine some spotlight on. I was not able to continue with Reclaim the Beats, because I have been trying to recover financially until today. For 4 years, I have been trying to pay from my own pocket!! NOW because I've been unable to keep up, in two weeks they will freeze my personal account and come to my home and take things.
Unfortunately, 2017 was an especially difficult year. Three things happened that were out of my control.
1. A racist incident happened at the original and affordable venue location forcing us to move to more expensive locations.
2. Several deadly tornadoes happened in Berlin on opening night of the festival due to Cyclone Xavier -- causing us to suffer an even deeper loss.
3. During the organization process my home became unsafe and I needed to uproot my life while also delivering the festival.
I tried my best to recover and handle this on my own, but then a good friend reminded me that I was serving the community and was doing so with the assistance of arts funding -- it wouldn't make sense for me to continue dealing with this in solitude.
Now, I'm in a much deeper situation and need to reach out to the caring world community.
Here are the costs I'm dealing with around this:
THANK YOU!! PHASE ONE SUCCESSFUL!! -- The primary and most URGENT:
3780 EUR - Debt to Inkasso (. I must pay this to stay out of court. Needed by 22th of April. (This amount came from a negative bank account. To meet the costs of venues and artist fees, I had to use credit from the business bank account PLUS pay some from my personal. I am not in a position to pay this from my own pocket. If this is not paid, then this issue goes deeper in the court process and results in state officials showing up to my home and deciding what they will take from me.
PHASE TWO: Remaining Costs:
1620 EUR - in remaining invoices - This is also urgent because NO freelancer should have to wait 4+ years to get paid. There are two people who still need to be paid. Our videographer and our PR. They have been very kind and patient over the years. I would really like to pay them.
PHASE THREE: To fully be done with this difficult experience, it would be a great help when we exceed the first two goals:
860 EUR - needed to Legally dissolve the business. To avoid further penalties from the German tax and business offices, it is required that I dissolve the company structure and file the last two years taxes-- Otherwise, each year I get charged penalties and am required to hire a tax accountant. As an immigrant here, I was "in over my head" with how to handle German bureaucracy. I've learned a lesson but it also costs quite a bit to get out of.
(Campaign goal amounts include adjustment of 8% to cover GoFundMe platform fees)
Once this situation is repaired, I would love to continue contributing to the world with future Reclaim the Beats Festival events.
Thank you for your support and I hope you enjoy the video content from our past events.
For a fully playlist of videos from Reclaim the Beats Festival, visit this link:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBD-qCmFCGrYjL8TayHqYCq8dJg93-7XN
For More Information watch this:
STORY
In 2016 and 2017, I created and organized a community event in Berlin, Germany called Reclaim the Beats Festival.
As a musician myself, this was my way of contributing to the music scene that I wished to see. I'm happy with the platform I was able to offer to the amazing artists who we were able to shine some spotlight on. I was not able to continue with Reclaim the Beats, because I have been trying to recover financially until today. For 4 years, I have been trying to pay from my own pocket!! NOW because I've been unable to keep up, in two weeks they will freeze my personal account and come to my home and take things.
Unfortunately, 2017 was an especially difficult year. Three things happened that were out of my control.
1. A racist incident happened at the original and affordable venue location forcing us to move to more expensive locations.
2. Several deadly tornadoes happened in Berlin on opening night of the festival due to Cyclone Xavier -- causing us to suffer an even deeper loss.
3. During the organization process my home became unsafe and I needed to uproot my life while also delivering the festival.
I tried my best to recover and handle this on my own, but then a good friend reminded me that I was serving the community and was doing so with the assistance of arts funding -- it wouldn't make sense for me to continue dealing with this in solitude.
Now, I'm in a much deeper situation and need to reach out to the caring world community.
Here are the costs I'm dealing with around this:
THANK YOU!! PHASE ONE SUCCESSFUL!! -- The primary and most URGENT:
3780 EUR - Debt to Inkasso (. I must pay this to stay out of court. Needed by 22th of April. (This amount came from a negative bank account. To meet the costs of venues and artist fees, I had to use credit from the business bank account PLUS pay some from my personal. I am not in a position to pay this from my own pocket. If this is not paid, then this issue goes deeper in the court process and results in state officials showing up to my home and deciding what they will take from me.
PHASE TWO: Remaining Costs:
1620 EUR - in remaining invoices - This is also urgent because NO freelancer should have to wait 4+ years to get paid. There are two people who still need to be paid. Our videographer and our PR. They have been very kind and patient over the years. I would really like to pay them.
PHASE THREE: To fully be done with this difficult experience, it would be a great help when we exceed the first two goals:
860 EUR - needed to Legally dissolve the business. To avoid further penalties from the German tax and business offices, it is required that I dissolve the company structure and file the last two years taxes-- Otherwise, each year I get charged penalties and am required to hire a tax accountant. As an immigrant here, I was "in over my head" with how to handle German bureaucracy. I've learned a lesson but it also costs quite a bit to get out of.
(Campaign goal amounts include adjustment of 8% to cover GoFundMe platform fees)
Once this situation is repaired, I would love to continue contributing to the world with future Reclaim the Beats Festival events.
Thank you for your support and I hope you enjoy the video content from our past events.
For a fully playlist of videos from Reclaim the Beats Festival, visit this link:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBD-qCmFCGrYjL8TayHqYCq8dJg93-7XN
For More Information watch this:
Organizer
Sky Dietrich
Organizer
Berlin
