Lets also be honest. There are only a handful of 'progressive metal' bands that haven't been to this fest, that are still active, and that people care much about. There are a couple handfuls of power metal bands, but several of them are too expensive to matter. The biggest bands in the genres are not active enough to really get the buzz going on even the smaller ones.
The most attractive progmetal bands in terms of selling tickets, are those that don't sound anything like Dream Theater. Many of the ones that were attractive and sounded like Dream Theater (or Fates Warning) no longer exist. The fan base partly has left because of that.
There are very few cost effective headline capable bands.
I wouldn't exactly say there's only a handful of prog bands that haven't been to the fest, but what you're implying is something I've talked to people about through the years. The only tried and true prog metal bands that tour really at all here are Dream Theater and once in a great while, Fates Warning. I mean I suppose you can lump Symphony X in there, but to be honest I find that they are more lumped into the power metal category than prog even though they are prog no doubt. That's it, though. Beyond that, you have prog metal but more of the extreme type, i.e. Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, etc. I think that's one of the biggest problems in terms of the prog side of things. Many people that might even like prog, don't even know of most of these bands.
On the power metal side of things, I think there is much more awareness, but still there aren't that many that continue to tour in the states. I would think the ones that tour the most frequently would be Kamelot, Edguy, Epica and Sonata Arctica. I mean even the bigger (in terms of historical impact and such) bands such as Helloween and Gamma Ray hardly ever tour here. I think it was something like at least 4 years since Helloween toured here when they did the Hellish Rock tour. Hammerfall, while they did tour here already this year, hadn't toured the states in four years, and I believe I read an interview where they said they're debating even doing it again because the turnout wasn't the best.
My point? I just think the two majoring factors in terms of this fest not doing as well as it used to is awareness and economy. I don't even know to be honest if it's just simply because these are two niche metal markets or it's just that they never get any awareness. I know that can be taken to be the same thing, but a lot of metalheads I think would like some power metal but they really don't know much about it since a lot of the US mags are more aimed towards metalcore, death metal, thrash and black metal for the most part. It's too bad that US metal mags just never feature our types of bands or even have a little snippit about progpower. I think if more people knew about it, the fest would do better. I'm not blaming anyone, just saying without awareness, it's hard to build back up a fan base, so I applaud you guys that are trying to promote it. I wish I could, I just don't have the time and to be honest, I just don't know a lot of friends that are into metal. As sad as it sounds, it seems Blabbermouth (I know I'm going to get shit for that one but I don't care) is the most visited place where people go for metal news, that actually posts news about the fest.
Beyond that, the economy is tough. As of right now, my goal is to go to the fest, because usually for me there is no better concert the whole year than progpower. I have tickets for all the days but it could end up being I don't show up if I get a major financial blow or a new job that prevents me to come. Luckily, I don't necessarily have as many commitments as others, so I tend to save most of my extra money annually for the fest the last couple of years. So, those that do have more responsibilities and such, I would assume would make it very hard for them to be able to show in this economy. It's unfortunate but it's just a fact of the times.
I know were trying to bring at another car pool of people from FL who all really want to come since nothing like this exists Down here........YET. 
Im bringing Scott and Shannon with me this year. They are the last members to play with Chuck Schuldiner in Death and Control Denied before Chuck died. 
