This year was my first year, and it was great. SF Metal Man and I shared a hotel, not knowing each other beforehand. The aquarium was pretty awesome. If you do anything extra, I'd go spend 2 hours at the aquarium for around $40 - it was worth it and it's very modern with a nice dolphin show too.
The city is pretty easy to navigate on day 2, but the first day was scary as hell. 2 peachtree roads connect everything pretty much, so even if you are 2-3 miles away, it doesn't really matter that much if you take it nice and slow. There are plenty of one way streets, which I'm really not used to. I would expect to end up making a few wrong turns and needing 10-15 extra time if you don't want to miss anything.
Stay off the highway unless you are used to switching through 7 lanes of traffic in a huge beltway (OMG that was 5 minutes of horror). Statistically, I've heard Atlanta has the worst chance of accidents. It was easy to see why. Narrow lanes, tons of one way streets, crazy highway, and lots of streets with almost the same name - peach tree SW, N, NW, WTF?!
The streets of Atlanta downtown were mostly empty this year and that felt very weird because the buildings are huge. Apparently, when there isn't a big event, no one is in the city. I never felt like it was dangerous even late at night. It would probably be better to connect with someone that is going, since halfway knowing someone is more fun then not knowing anyone. I kind of sensed the most of the crowd felt the same way about the various bands. Like it was so obvious everyone liked Myrath. Some of the bands are much better at commanding the stage. Some of the performances are really surprising because they do some things you wouldn't expect. Like several of the drummers were really world class this year (Myrath / Sabaton / Circus Maximus / Shadow Gallery). You don't quite understand how powerful some of the music is until it is played loud.
If you make any stops off the highway around Atlanta, I think you'd find that it's like 99% black and kind of run down, but the city is a lot nicer and seemed to have more diversity.
It was easy to find parking at the venue in one of the lots, but I found it hard to drive manual because of the steep inclines. Fortunately, nothing bad happened.
I'm going to look for a roommate on the forum here when it gets closer to the event. Everyone I saw at the concert seems pretty respectful and such. There was 1 mosh pit and I saw a dude break/sprain his ankle, a guy lose his glasses during soilwork, but everyone was really nice at the same time despite those reckless mistakes. I think only 10 people actually wanted to have a mosh pit, and most others were slightly annoyed because 1 or 2 people kept pummeling into them - lol. It's definitely not a mosh pit type of event, but I don't think they actively discourage it either, which some venues I know stop that instantly. I was right next to those crazy kids, and it made soilwork's set seem almost inappropriate because the prog elements seemed a bit lost in the madness of the more aggressive style metal and crowd distraction. I actually like soilwork more on the album then live now.
I met several random strangers who enjoyed talking about the music briefly in various lines for merch / bathroom / signatures. The bands are at tables just outside the main room, so it's really easy to access the signing, but you might have to miss some of the music waiting for a signature - I don't collect signatures, but I did shake hands with the guys in Circus Maximus because they deserve a lot of praise - that was pretty cool to meet the whole band. You'll find the 30 minutes between bands goes by very fast and there just isn't enough time for it all. It was really great to be able to sit down for some of the acts. You can sit anywhere, and it was nice to have that freedom. It was also pretty easy to be up close for your favorite bands if you wanted to stand in the middle. I think every seat in the theater is good though - even the very top. The direct sound up front is better then from the top row.
The bands shared a lot of the equipment to keep up the rapid pace of switching acts, so there were occasional tech issues during live song, and crew scrambled to get an amp going again. I think they blew some tubes and had some shitty cables for at least 3 bands. That kind of stuff was forgivable overall. The headlining bands seemed to be able to use more of their own gear, and be more meticulous about the sound check & gear quality. It would probably be an hour wait if every band had their own gear, which would make it hard to fit in a lot of the music. The last 1 or 2 bands each night were technically superior I thought, which makes a difference for highly technical music like prog metal. Though, there are so many good bands in 2014, I'd bet some of these issues won't happen.
I don't have any local friends who are die-hard prog music fans, so I plan on going alone each year probably.
I had a lot of doubts before committing to go this year - mainly the money & long drive (6 hours). But after going there, I thought it was the best concert experience I've had. I'm just 31 and haven't seen many of the international prog / power metal bands live yet, but I listen to them all day. This concert is the closest/cheapest way to see a lot of great bands I listen to. I'm mostly wanting to see Seventh Wonder / Pagan's Mind / DGM in 2014.
If you can't find someone else to hang out with, you could meet up with me and/or share hotel costs. I'm non-smoker / non-drinker and do web development. I also play drums/guitar, which is why I like better musicianship in jazz/prog more. I won't cause you any trouble.
