Jacksonville, Broadcaster, Bobby D Sawyer, Maggie G, Kate Sala, Alan Gregory, The Diablos, Ainsley, Dave Sherrif ........ Just some of the acts we know were issued with rubber cheques by Justin Cooke following this years TSWRA festival. Cooke has made no effort to contact any of these people or to offer an explanation or proposal for putting it right. The people who made this years event the success that it was would not work with this man again, so its fair to assume that The South Will Not Rise Again.

DanzDevil (part of the Tiny Dancer Group) have always been committed and dedicated to the linedance community both here in the UK and around the world. We have mobilised an effort to try to recover something for these professionals who were duped into giving their services free. Life as a professional entertainer is tough enough, many of these people travelled great distances to appear, and funded that travel. Professional entertainers are usually not well paid, the overhead, fuel and subsistence costs alone take a huge chunk of their income. Very few make big money. Thankfully, on this circuit, good faith and honour prevails and its rare for an act to go unpaid. But, as with all circuits, occasionally the low life elements sneak in, amatuerish in their approach, or simply chancers who belong in the gutter. When they strike at this circuit, the performers suffer real, and potentially devastating hardship. Losing a nights money at such short notice can mean not making the rent or mortgage payment. Thats not on and we won't stand for it.

Help us to help these artists.

You can donate to the rescue fund by clicking on the buttons on the right. Whatever you can afford to give will help. Paypal charge a nominal fee of 20p per transaction on these buttons, but DanzDevil will make that up so your full donation will go into the fund. If you would rather not donate in this way, perhaps your club could hold a raffle to raise some money. Several prominent artists and choreographers have offered to give free services to clubs willing run fund raising events. Whatever you can contribute will mean a great deal.

A Better Future

We know that many dancers re booked for this event next year and paid deposits. We are looking into ways of helping you recover that money too. Its a little difficult at the moment as we need enough of you to make a complaint to a) the Police and b) your credit card companies. We believe there is enough evidence to suggest a fraud may have been committed, but we need you to make individual complaints.

Dorset Police