These types of threads always crack me up! You have all the lovers, haters, and armchair quarterbacks at their best. Let's see, we are going onto PP 12, not the beginning. We can all sit back and say how we would put together a festival, but at the end of the day we have Glenn with 11 successful festivals behind him -- I think he has proven that he knows what he is doing by now.
The whole argument for: I've never heard of these guys therefore they suck and will not sell tickets is ludicrous! I got made fun of in the 8th grade (1982-83) for saying that Accept was my favorite band. Yeah, this was before Balls to the Wall came out. In fact, people told me exactly that: "I've never heard of them, they must suck." Funny how after Balls to the Wall came out, the haters all flipped around and all of a sudden people loved them. I grew up on the underground scene and unknown bands. Bands like Metallica (who played to a crowd of 20 in Baltimore on Kill 'em All), Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Testament... They all went on to become quite bigger and it's hard to find someone who hasn't heard of them these days. BTW, Sanctuary was also one of these bands and I even used to cover Mirror Black in a band back in 1992.
So have I heard of all these bands? Hell no! But now I have and have a year to research and see who I might like. I also have the opportunity to check out their live show and have them win me over. I HATED Freak Kitchen before they played. The only reason I went into the venue for them because a very good friend (JayDub) was in his glory with them there and never stopped talking about them. I went in to see him have the time of his life. By the end of the set, I was a huge fan and immediately went to Laser's Edge and purchased 6 FK CD's.
This genre/community was founded on the unknown, so why is it that so many have stagnated and refuse to give new bands a chance? Seems kinda crazy to me. As a guitarist in a relatively unknown band, I think its GREAT that Glenn is giving newer bands exposure and a chance at gaining some fans. Especially in such a great venue!
ANother thing, when I attended PP1 in Chicago, I had never even heard of Evergrey and the first time I heard them at all was there. I think we can all safely admit that these guys went on to be quite well-known (at least in this community).
To me this festival has always been bigger than the bands. It is also a place where I get to be around many like-minded individuals that have come to be friends once a year and is a reunion of sorts. So between that and enjoying some (not all) of the bands, it is clearly worth the price of admission and related expenses. Yes, it can be costly, but I have long viewed it was a vacation and they are NEVER free. OK, so now I started working as a guitar tech at the fest three years ago and it has helped in subsidizing my trip. However, working with 17 bands in three days, 17 hour work days with not a lot of sleep is hard work - but I find GREATLY rewarding. It is way different than my full-time job as a software engineer and LOVE being part of this great festival and using my skills to help it out.
Personally, I look forward to learning about these new bands and working with them next year. They tend to be hungry and willing to give 110% at their show - sometimes the veterans are just going through the motions.
Give the new blood a chance and screw all this negativity!!!!