if Gatekeeper could get down here....I would have you guys on the second stage for sure without any issues at all...put it tha way. Seriously...if it goes the way it did last year...just buy your tickets to the fest and come on down and you are on. I will give you any day and slot you want. I would be honored if you played.
Aw shucks. Thanks. That means a lot. I'd be willing, would have to convince the rest of my crew though.
I love your headliners but financially....doubtful. Who knows.
Well I tried to pick my list based upon what I saw at the fest this year, though my 'Murican 'Jograffy is spotty at best and I don't know how much these bands (or this year's) are asking.
Ok, let's have one of our discussions here.
Is the budget for bands at 2014 different from the 2013 budget? Let's assume that the Kickstarter thing works great and the initial $5000 gets covered here. The fest brought over Omen (LA) and OZ (Fin/Swe) this year, would Satan (UK) and Liege Lord (Conneticut) be much different in terms of cost, really?
Wings of Metal fest in Montreal is hosting 4 international bands (Satan, Manilla Road, Magic Circle and Midnight) plus two highish-profile reunion bands in a venue that caps at maybe 200 people. How they are pulling it off, I dunno. But I bet Ragnarokkr could do it too.
https://www.facebook.com/events/304102653050736/
even those bands are a tad high because of travel cost....this is the hard part of getting the midlevel acts...unless they are coming on a short tour it is really tough. Speedwolf draws great here...they are worth the cost....I love Spellcaster and Skelator but both have played here to 5 people. While it would be cool as hell...but not cost efficiant.
Ok, so what do you propose the fest does instead? Just get bands within 3-5 hours drive? Again, I don't know a whole lot about the lay of the land over there, but you're bleed the well dry going down that route, there's only so many bands suitable for this fest in the area, I'm sure. And you can't have constant repeats, you've gotta mix it up. I liked most of the bands on the 2nd stage and early on the main stage, but if every single one of those bands played again next year I'd be sick of it, that's not the experience I'm paying for.
I also think that you can't get too wrapped up in "local draw" all the time with every band. A festival is a different bag than a straight-up tour or a regular gig. People will show up for the headliners, or to see their friends in the local support, or maybe to catch their fave "buzz band" like Speedwolf. Everything else is just gravy. But without some gravy, your thanksgiving dinner is a tad dry, right? You've gotta have a few bands where the locals go in with no clue, and then come out with their minds blown! Being surprised and blown away by something unfamiliar is part of the festival experience, man. You may have seen Skelator/Spellcaster play in front of 5 people in Chicago on a tuesday night (or whatever the fuck) but that's pretty much every new band on their first or second tour EVER. If those 5 people buy $50 tickets, then that's $250 more for the fest right there. Could be worse, really.
Also, why the fuck are you limiting the draw of this event to Chicago locals? I came all the way from fuckin'
Canada because
Gatekrashor got booked. That's the cold, hard truth. I can pretty it up by saying "Oh I wanted to see Omen/Ashbury/whoever" but the fact is that I didn't feel truly compelled to drop $900+ on that trip until my friends got booked to open the show. I went because I knew for a fact that I'd be able to share an experience at an incredible fest with some close friends. My two companions felt the same way. Now I'm back in Canada telling all my friends how fucking cool this fest is. My European friends have taken a sincere interest in this after my testimonials, too. Who's to say that Skelator/Spellcaster's 4 best friends won't pile in a van for a Road Trip to Ragnarokkr?
(fuck, there's a song title...) They'd probably rave about it like I'm doing right now. What percentage of KIT attendance is made up of folk from outside Germany? Even Noctis fest in Calgary has been getting a bunch of USA/EUR fans in attendance after 5 incarnations. Let's think a little more globally. Not overly so, of course. There's gotta be balance. I'm sure there's still lots of cool bands on the local/regional level over there that I'm not aware of.
I'm not trying to stick my dick in the potato salad here, but I think my thoughts as a complete outsider (with touring/booking/promotion experience) are valid.
