Transition

Hello,

My name is Desislava - Dess for short.

The last 10+ years I was partially at first, then fully working in the event industry, specifically in the Live Music. I started as a volunteer on a Jazz Festival in my hometown Sofia, Bulgaria and with the help of the amazing team there made my way up to the position of the Main Festival Coordinator.

The more time was passing, the more I was falling in love with my job! This whole process of starting an event from the scratch! Working tirelessly together with all the passionate people around you towards the same goal all of you have - to see, to hear and to feel the happiness of both the artists on the stage and the audience in front of it! The positive vibes you can feel in a packed venue are re-charging your batteries and no matter that you have been working for days and weeks with almost no sleep at all - you feel amazing and you keep going. And you are happy.

Being the Jazz Festival Coordinator once a year wasn’t enough for me. I started to work as a volunteer for some of the major promoters in my home country as a production assistant, local rep, hospitality girl, ground transport organiser… more gigs, more experience, more people from whom I can learn and a lot of new opportunities. Now, some years later I am happy to have several international tours, to have worked with some of my all-time-favourite artists and numbers of great experiences, memories and friends.

My job in the Live Music changed my life completely, and it did so for good. Not only I have found my place in this world, the thing that I can do for living and be happy with, but it also introduced me to my partner (in crime), with whom I share all the passion in this life we have together.

The last 2 years have been really difficult for the whole world. I am going to be completely honest with you - I don’t feel “special and mistreated” by the pandemic more than all the other people all over the world. But since we are all different and have different circumstances in our lives, I am only here to share my story with you and to ask for your support.

We are in a very hard financial situation for more than a year now, both being in the Live Music Industry. We made it so far with a lot of discipline, patience and luckily without a lot of other issues on our way or too big or too many unpredicted expenses. Then 2 significant things happened to us in the last 2-3 months that changed our course of our life.

In November 2021 I was hired by a Production Company for doing an European tour with a symphonic orchestra. 6 weeks tour, acceptable daily rate taking the circumstances. Short calculation told me that this tour in between lockdowns might be some fresh air for us, some comfort until we are able to start working in full power again. I did the tour but unfortunately it turned out that this company didn’t have any intentions to pay me fully (and a lot of other people from the crew) for the job I did. Legal actions against this company are already in motion so hopefully I will be able to have my well deserved salary soon enough - everything is in the hands of the lawyers that are taking care of it. If you want to have more information on this topic - I will be more than happy to share it with you.

The second, very important life event for me and actually the one that makes me start this campaign is that I was extremely lucky to be offered a position in a very big, well known Agency in Austria. This is a perfect opportunity for me to grow even more in the Industry, to learn more and to really - follow my heart and make one of my dreams come true. But of course - I cannot afford to cover the huge amount of money that this transition will need so easily. Renting an apartment with all the deposits, transport costs for the luggage and everything else which one must do when relocating might be possible under any other circumstances, but not after 2 years of us not being able to work in our full capacity.

This is why I ask for your help.

Thank you for your time reading my story and for all further actions you will do to help someone in need - maybe not me and my cause, but someone else’s who needs something more than I do.

~ Dess G.