ZAO Festivals on Artizen - proposal for team input
Create our own fund, or curate into existing ones?
We want to get ZAOstock, Zaoville, and our other events funded on Artizen. After a full scan of the platform (~79 funds), the original plan - create our own ZAO Festivals Fund - looks less obvious than it did. This page lays out what we found and two paths. Tell us what you think.
What we found
- -Artizen has ~79 community funds right now - a fast-moving, crowded field.
- -Music + festival funds already exist: We're Loud Fund for DIY Music Festivals, Global Music Fund, Greenpill Regen Gatherings, plus several more. The "no fund for music festivals" idea was wrong.
- -Cross-curation already happens for us: six ZAO-fund music projects (Voices of the Land, Gaian Temple, HERITAGE, Sonic Sanctuary, International Artists Project, MOTHERLand) are also in the Global Music Fund.
- -Our ZAO Fund for Emerging Culture was dormant this drive as of June 22 (rank ~#23, ~$188 at that snapshot) - it only ranks when our projects actually sell.
- -Friendly funds are run by people we know: the Bonfires Fund (our knowledge-graph partner) already hosts Arun's DreamStarter and Abraham Nash's project.
- -Treasury policy: keep the ZAO treasury out of the ART token for now. The endowment size is Artizen's own figure - check the Base addresses in the Playbook's Endowment section before quoting it.
The two options
Option A - Create our own ZAO Festivals Fund
Pros
- +Our own branded home for festivals on Artizen
- +We curate who gets in; we can recruit other organizers under us
- +Up to $50K Artizen seed if approved
Cons
- -Needs René approval + an ongoing curation commitment (an 80th fund in a crowded field)
- -The "white space" is gone - We're Loud, Global Music, and Greenpill already fund music events
- -Splits attention while our existing ZAO Fund is already dormant this drive
Option B - Curate our events into existing funds (recommended)
RecommendedPros
- +Same match, none of the overhead - stack ZAOstock/Zaoville into 3-4 funds at once
- +Cross-curation already works: 6 ZAO music projects are ALREADY in the Global Music Fund
- +We can start this drive, no approval needed
- +Focuses energy on activating the projects, which is the real bottleneck
Cons
- -No ZAO-branded festivals fund (less ownership / visibility)
- -We rely on other curators accepting our projects
The recommendation (open to change)
Start with Option B: curate ZAOstock + Zaoville into We're Loud, Global Music, Greenpill, and our own ZAO Fund. It gets our events funded now, with no approval and no new overhead - and it puts our energy on the real bottleneck, which is getting people to collect our projects this drive. We can still create a dedicated ZAO Festivals Fund later if we want to host other organizers under us. But that is a bigger, second step, not the starting move.
We want your input
This is a proposal, not a decision. If you are on a ZAO Festivals team - ZAOstock, Zaoville, COC, or any ZAO event - tell us: does Option A or B feel right? What are we missing? Which funds should our events go into? Who do you know who runs a fund we should talk to?