Save the Rainbow
Donation protected
This article was first published on New Frame on 15 May 2020
For more on The Rainbow's history, please read this article from photo-journalist Rafs Mayet, who has been documenting concerts and events at The Rainbow since 1986.
What is not covered by the video and linked article:
The years 2016 to 2019, saw the fortunes of The Rainbow decline, in parallel to the overall socio-economic decline in South Africa. The iconic Sunday afternoon concerts had given way to more low key events on Saturday afternoons, with a handful of Sunday concerts, like the annual Birthday Bash.
In March 2016, Neil and Nicola Comfort set off on a quest to take a multimedia installation of The Rainbow story to the annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which has taken place in Scotland's capital every August since 1947, but will be missing this August due to the pandemic. Neil continues to work on bringing elements of the original project to the Fringe or other interested partners like the Edinburgh Blues and Jazz Festival.
The early months of 2020 saw an energy injection at The Rainbow, with the sale of 20% of the business to a new partner with an interest in reviving the Sunday concerts, as well as transfer of 20% shareholding to five key staff members.
These deals were inked on 3 March 2020 and a concert was staged on Sunday 8 March announcing the deal and heralding a restart for the iconic Sunday concerts. And then COVID19 overwhelmed us all.
Why the need for crowdfunding support?
As a restaurant, the Rainbow has been in lock down since midnight on 26 March 2020. Like in many jurisdictions, the easing of lock down restrictions remain very fluid. As of 31 July, we remain closed, with the prohibition of alcohol sales still in place, it would cost us money to open our doors to a weak and still to be tested market. Permissible trading hours remain highly restrictive for restaurants and pre-COVID, food and soft drinks only accounted for 10% of turnover.
Due to Nicola's UK citizenship, we are precluded from applying for any funds from the first round of SA government relief schemes, as only businesses that are 100% owned by SA citizens will be funded.
As for the eight employees that the Rainbow had when the lock down hit, we have managed to get all covered up until end June on the Temporary Employee Relief Scheme the government is running. It was recently announced that this would be extended to 15 August, so we have hopes they will eventually receive benefits for July through to 15 August. Further employee welfare was secured for 15 weeks with a weekly stipend to each employee secured through a loan from the SA Future Trust. Five of the 8 employees have been receiving 100% of their salaries pre-lockdown, whereas ironically, due to sectoral minimum wages entering the UIF benefit formula, 3 employees have been getting out more than pre-lockdown levels. We are hugely relieved that to this point we will surely be able to see all 8 of them through to a resumption of trade without having been financially deprived, which I think is a rare thing in these times.
We originally set the target at £10,000 (or the South African Rand equivalent) to see The Rainbow through to a resumption of trade based on a hypothetical date of 1 September. As of 31 July, we remain hopeful that we will be trading by then. Due to the loan from SAFT, ensuring staff welfare was covered, this has been revised down to £7000, so we are now 58% of the way there!
The Musicians and live music at The Rainbow
With so much uncertainty around the resumption of regular day to day trade, we have decided that our position, in terms of concerts, is that they will resume when there is national distribution of a vaccine, so no funds in this appeal are specifically allocated against concerts. UPDATE: 31/7 - we are considering the streaming option so performances might precede a vaccine.
If the story of The Rainbow is one that you feel should continue. If this fundraising campaign can attain a global reach and go viral. If we can exceed our funding target by a large multiple, we are well positioned to make an immediate impact on the musicians that have graced our stage over the years. We will detail a plan of how The Rainbow could act as an agency to assist our music community once our immediate target of saving The Rainbow is reached.
UPDATE: 31/7 - we are obviously short of our own target, but I must note here that through my interaction with SA based musicians, the situation is really dire for many. What little relief funding has been made available, is not reaching any musicians that have graced the Rainbow stage. None that I know of anyway. Considering they are SA's finest, this is rather shameful.
We would also like, if support allows, to assist the freelance photographers that have been documenting our concerts all these years. The same goes for the sound engineers.
For it is only through their survival that the music that we love will ever return to our stage, be heard and be documented.
- The Struggle for Jazz, Jazz for the Struggle
For more on The Rainbow's history, please read this article from photo-journalist Rafs Mayet, who has been documenting concerts and events at The Rainbow since 1986.
What is not covered by the video and linked article:
The years 2016 to 2019, saw the fortunes of The Rainbow decline, in parallel to the overall socio-economic decline in South Africa. The iconic Sunday afternoon concerts had given way to more low key events on Saturday afternoons, with a handful of Sunday concerts, like the annual Birthday Bash.
In March 2016, Neil and Nicola Comfort set off on a quest to take a multimedia installation of The Rainbow story to the annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which has taken place in Scotland's capital every August since 1947, but will be missing this August due to the pandemic. Neil continues to work on bringing elements of the original project to the Fringe or other interested partners like the Edinburgh Blues and Jazz Festival.
The early months of 2020 saw an energy injection at The Rainbow, with the sale of 20% of the business to a new partner with an interest in reviving the Sunday concerts, as well as transfer of 20% shareholding to five key staff members.
These deals were inked on 3 March 2020 and a concert was staged on Sunday 8 March announcing the deal and heralding a restart for the iconic Sunday concerts. And then COVID19 overwhelmed us all.
Why the need for crowdfunding support?
As a restaurant, the Rainbow has been in lock down since midnight on 26 March 2020. Like in many jurisdictions, the easing of lock down restrictions remain very fluid. As of 31 July, we remain closed, with the prohibition of alcohol sales still in place, it would cost us money to open our doors to a weak and still to be tested market. Permissible trading hours remain highly restrictive for restaurants and pre-COVID, food and soft drinks only accounted for 10% of turnover.
Due to Nicola's UK citizenship, we are precluded from applying for any funds from the first round of SA government relief schemes, as only businesses that are 100% owned by SA citizens will be funded.
As for the eight employees that the Rainbow had when the lock down hit, we have managed to get all covered up until end June on the Temporary Employee Relief Scheme the government is running. It was recently announced that this would be extended to 15 August, so we have hopes they will eventually receive benefits for July through to 15 August. Further employee welfare was secured for 15 weeks with a weekly stipend to each employee secured through a loan from the SA Future Trust. Five of the 8 employees have been receiving 100% of their salaries pre-lockdown, whereas ironically, due to sectoral minimum wages entering the UIF benefit formula, 3 employees have been getting out more than pre-lockdown levels. We are hugely relieved that to this point we will surely be able to see all 8 of them through to a resumption of trade without having been financially deprived, which I think is a rare thing in these times.
We originally set the target at £10,000 (or the South African Rand equivalent) to see The Rainbow through to a resumption of trade based on a hypothetical date of 1 September. As of 31 July, we remain hopeful that we will be trading by then. Due to the loan from SAFT, ensuring staff welfare was covered, this has been revised down to £7000, so we are now 58% of the way there!
The Musicians and live music at The Rainbow
With so much uncertainty around the resumption of regular day to day trade, we have decided that our position, in terms of concerts, is that they will resume when there is national distribution of a vaccine, so no funds in this appeal are specifically allocated against concerts. UPDATE: 31/7 - we are considering the streaming option so performances might precede a vaccine.
If the story of The Rainbow is one that you feel should continue. If this fundraising campaign can attain a global reach and go viral. If we can exceed our funding target by a large multiple, we are well positioned to make an immediate impact on the musicians that have graced our stage over the years. We will detail a plan of how The Rainbow could act as an agency to assist our music community once our immediate target of saving The Rainbow is reached.
UPDATE: 31/7 - we are obviously short of our own target, but I must note here that through my interaction with SA based musicians, the situation is really dire for many. What little relief funding has been made available, is not reaching any musicians that have graced the Rainbow stage. None that I know of anyway. Considering they are SA's finest, this is rather shameful.
We would also like, if support allows, to assist the freelance photographers that have been documenting our concerts all these years. The same goes for the sound engineers.
For it is only through their survival that the music that we love will ever return to our stage, be heard and be documented.
- The Struggle for Jazz, Jazz for the Struggle
Fundraising team: The Rainbow (10)
Neil Comfort
Organizer
Raised £2,915 from 26 donations
Nicola Comfort
Team member
Raised £300 from 10 donations
Gary Church
Team member
Raised £145 from 4 donations
Rafs Mayet
Team member
Raised £40 from 2 donations
Cheryl Ingram
Team member
