Shots fired: An event organizer has taken to social media to post about the Marikina city government allegedly stealing their idea of a local food and art fest.
According to Marisse Mañalac, she and her team conceptualized a food and art festival at Lilac Street in Marikina, known as one of the up-and-coming food and art hubs in the area. The plan was to inform the local government about it, ask for assistance in execution, and informing the restaurant owners about it. She wrote in her post that they presented it to the tourism department and eventually with the city administrator, who answered that the city government would like to do the execution themselves. Marisse’s team replied that they are disheartened with this move and if the local government wanted to execute what was their team’s idea, they would want to meet halfway by getting paid for their production ideas and concepts, but they never heard back from the local government since.
Below is the text of the full post:
Please give this post a few minutes of your time and feel free to share it. DO NOT PATRONIZE THIS EVENT.
February of this year, our team finished conceptualizing a FOOD AND ART FESTIVAL for LILAC STREET in MARIKINA CITY in the hopes of helping the local entrepreneurs and artists be more exposed and show the new generation the beauty of Marikina. In short, this is one of our goal-oriented, art-inclined projects. Thought of and cooked to perfection.
At this point, please take note that they ARE NOT our clients. We came to them. This project is our OWN production and we are merely informing the city, asking for permission and assistance to execute, and inform the restaurant owners about it.
Also take note that though we are purpose-driven, we are doing business. Producing events is our business.
So we proceeded with presenting it to the city’s tourism department and eventually with the city administrator. After several meetings and even revisions, they ended up saying that they will be the ones to execute our concept. We replied to them saying that if that’s what they want to do, we are disheartened and would like to meet halfway by getting paid for our concepts and production ideas. No response ever since.
Now, without buying the rights to the idea, it is now being executed by the local government of Marikina City.
Ninakaw po ito sa amin. Walang paalam, walang bayad, walang abiso. From collateral to program segments, sa amin po ang ideas. Alam yan ng mga malalapit sa akin, sa amin.
I don’t usually do this but PLEASE DO NOT PATRONIZE THIS EVENT. We will not tolerate circumstances like this. Nakakawalang gana magtiwala sa local government.
What do you think of this? Got anything to add?
The foodfest is NOT a UNIQUE idea…a lot of this kind have been executed elsewhere…besides one reasons why marikina city govt had to execute the activity is because the event organizer was charging fees which fees will have to be sourced from the food establishments and those that will be going there as entrance fee. The local food establishmwnts didnt agree to the idea so the city govt didnt get the services of the organizer.
Marikina City have been doing foodfest since the term of Mayor MCF pa, 1st Foodfest was held at Teatro Marikina, then at Riverbanks Center and just last year at Freedom Park. After that event it was already agreed upon by the City Government & Marikina Culinary Arts Guild (in their evaluation) to have the next one at the Lilac Street. I think the organizer was just at the right time during the conceptualization stage for another Foodfest this year, so they were given the opportunity to present their ideas. Let me correct the organizers, Foodfest in Marikina is never something new, we have been doing that already for years, with different theme, focus and location in the city.
Anyone can have a food fest. You don’t own the rights to the term “food fest”. This is the same “con” issue – people can use the term con (whether it’s a comic con, or a cosplay con). I can’t see any element that has been stolen. Sure, they might have replicated the concept but it’s not like they stole your brand (which can be grounds for complaint).
Also, when you pitched the idea to the Markina gov’t and you had elements that you want to protect (well documented ones, copyrighted ones, etc), then you should have made them sign a contract that forbids them to use copyrighted and owned elements from your brand (that is if you have any). That would’ve saved you so much trouble.
Lastly, Marikina has been doing events like these for years now. So I can’t really say that they are not being original since they have done this before.
sayang 🙁
We are preparing an official statement on this claim. Meanwhile, it might be best for people to hear our side from the restaurant owners themselves who were turned off when their proposal involved charging restaurants P20,000/per stall for a 2-day event. The idea to have a food fair to promote Lilac as a food destination was originally scheduled for December 2014, but due to time constraints, it had to be postponed. So there is no truth to their preposterous claims since they only presented this February 2015.