RetroSpaceFest21: An Online Music Festival Mission Statement

As the opioid epidemic rages on in Vancouver and elsewhere in Canada, proper awareness must be brought to the situation. 2020 has been confirmed as the deadliest year of substance overdoses in BC and in Canada but what can be done to mitigate such a large, historic and complicated problem? 

Firstly we believe that awareness, shedding light on the situation, attracts understanding and with understanding comes compassionate intervention. Seeing the crisis from the vantage point of the victims can be effective. Someone who is addicted to substances is often not only mentally addicted but physically body dependent as well. This dependency is sometimes referred to dope sickness, and is extremely debilitating and painful to endure. This causes someone to seek out the addictive substance in a fashion which is dangerous and unsustainable. 

According to the DTES response website (https://dtesresponse.ca/) there are approximately 15000 precariously housed, 3000 living in the DTES and 4700 unhoused people living in Vancouver alone. Clearly a crisis worthy of more awareness and thus action by parties able to make a difference, including local, provincial and federal governments, NGO’s and community organizations & members.

Our primary mission & goal is to garner enough support to declare the opioid epidemic a national emergency. Once a national emergency is called the appropriate government response can be found and the necessary amount of funds can be allocated!

Our secondary mission and goal is to decriminalize the addictive substances that are currently under the controlled substances act and to reallocate funds from policing and enforcement to addiction treatment and harm reduction. Another important aspect is ibogaine therapy. Ibogaine is a medicine derived from the iboga plant native to Africa. It has been shown since the 1800’s to be effective at alleviating addiction, especially in opioids. Iboga is a psychedelic medicine currently not legal to be studied in laboratories! We need to end the psychedelic ban now to better study their effectiveness in treating trauma related diseases such as addiction and PTSD.

We will build awareness for these two important causes by holding round table discussions at the online festival, prior to the musical performances.

These round table discussions will bring on people and representatives to discuss what an appropriate response to the homelessness and addiction problem could look like, and how harm reduction and decriminalization have worked in the past and in other jurisdictions!

Funding Requirements:

• Impact Centre Rental costs including lighting and sound & video technicians. $2500 dt
• Artist payments ($100/set) = $1600 (Note some artists are choosing to donate their time to the charity)

 

• Internal Operations and Preevent Marketing $500

Total: $4600

The event will also be a live fundraiser where participants will be able to donate to the DTES response network via Twitch (a live-streaming platform) and external links! We hope to raise over $1000 in DTES relief!

Sponsors: will get exclusive logo presence on the poster and flyers, shoutouts during the livestream and website and social media presence! 

The following tiers will designate sponsors by their financial commitments:

Platinum: $1000

Gold: $500

Silver: $100

Bronze: $50

All funds raised will go to the Soul Tribe Foundation, a registered not-for-profit membership based society in BC.

And will be allocated appropriately to fund the online music festival! Any funds raised above and beyond the start up costs will be donated to the DTES Response. (https://dtesresponse.ca/)

Once funding goals have been reached we will begin a marketing and promotions blitz on social media, websites, and radio. 

Dates for the festival are Friday, April 2 to Sunday April 4, 2021, located in Port Coquitlam at the Impact Arts Centre. The name and the theme of the festival will be RETRO SPACE.

EVENT LINK: https://www.facebook.com/events/488735362531048/

TWITCH LINK: Twitch.tv/soultribecollective

Donations can be made by cheque, made out to the Soul Tribe Foundation, or eTransfer or Paypal: vancouversoultribe@gmail.com. All donations come with a tax receipt.

Cheques can be mailed to:

The Soul Tribe Foundation

103 - 1595 East 6 Ave

Vancouver, BC

V5N 5S1