Galería Cafe Lunasol — Restaurant in Berlin

One of the worst experiences I’ve had as a customer and artist supporter. Three of us went to a small concert at the cafe with a suggested donation of €10. We arrived a bit late, and I only had a €50 bill, so I went to the bar to buy a beer (€4) to get change and leave my donation in the box at the entrance.

Someone at the bar reminded me about the donation, and I explained that I was buying a beer so I could get change to donate. When they handed me the beer, I saw they had charged me €14 instead of €4, and when I asked why, they said they had included the suggested donation in the charge. It wasn’t how I wanted to handle it, but since the concert was already in progress, I let it go. In the end, I left a €30 donation and paid €4 for the beer.

At the end of the concert, we were shocked to find out that the cafe wasn’t planning to give the donated money to the artists. About seven of us had been “invited” to donate at the bar, but the money never reached the artists, who themselves were surprised to find out about this dishonest move by the cafe to squeeze more money out of a small event with no more than 12 attendees. From around €70 in donations at the bar, the cafe kept most of it and only gave the artists around €20. Their excuse was “tax reasons,” but as customers, we attended the event with the intention of giving voluntary donations (tax-free) to the artists, while also buying drinks (taxed)

Regardless of the legality, it was not the way to do it. I find it shameless that two artists who performed for two hours ended up having their donations taken away through the cafe’s deceptive practices. I insist that, as customers, it is not our responsibility to handle the cafe’s tax or copyright issues. Our voluntary €30 donation was meant for the artists and was kept by the cafe owners instead.

If someone claims this was actually the “entry fee” for the event, first of all, that was never clearly communicated, and I never received any receipt indicating that the €30 payment was for...

If you’re a musician, I don’t recommend playing at this venue. The owner treated us badly from the very first moment she walked in… she made us feel uncomfortable because in her opinion we hadn’t brought enough audience. Her attitude was arrogant, and in the end, we performed with a really bad feeling after a very uncomfortable conversation with her.

We organized a donation-based event with a suggested price of 10 euros. We had a donation box, but the bartenders charged people those 10 euros when they went to the bar to get drinks, and then they refused to give us the money that was rightfully ours.

It was the most unpleasant experience I’ve had as an artist in Berlin. They say they support art and culture, but then they steal what belongs to us.

It’s not easy being an emerging artist, sometimes more people come to the concerts, sometimes fewer, and often you can’t guarantee an audience. It’s a shame that places like this exist, run by people with bad intentions.

The guy who did the sound was really kind to us, but everything changed the moment the owner walked in. I’m angry and sad, I will never go back.

If you’re a musician, don’t even consider this place...

You can sense the owner's energy just by reading how she replies to the bad reviews lol that's how she treated us when we played at Galería Luna Sol, underestimating all the work we had put to bring an audience to her venue, where there was no hospitality for the people that arrived either. It's a cafe, people expected a cafe concert, with something nice to eat, and drink, so did we as artists. There was no food whatsoever, although we had been assured we would have, a minimum thing every place covers, be it they pay you or you only take the hat.

Says there is a minimum 20 people that have to be at concerts for her costs to be covered, which she never mentioned when arranging the date, which is a huge red flag for a producer, this is the first time she actually mentions a "number".

Would truly love to see the declaration and payment for gema, as we should receive as artists some money from that from playing our own songs :)

Indeed there were 16 people there for a concert we both as artists couldn't even enjoy. That's how you...