Working on tourist visa while awaiting for Performance visa

Hi there,
The band I work for has signed a contrat with an agent to work in chengdu performing in a venue.
They applied and paid for performance working visa but after many weeks waiting, the visas are not ready yet and we need to get urgently to China to start our already late contract.

We got told we could get a tourist visa, fly into the country and start working until we receive the performance visas (unsure if it would be the old work performance visa application or we would apply for a new working visa once there).
Is this a legal procedure? I have struggled to find any information about this topic, hope you can help.
Thank you,
S