What a fantastic example of speculation!

Or, we have confidence in the good intentions of the fine people running this thing for over ten years.

My first reaction was annoyance. But seriously folks the Fest isn't a money grab. These folks kill them selves for us. They turn down corporate sponsers, keep tickets reasonable and put on a great weekend. 10,000 dollars isn't really that much for a weekend of 250+ bands thousands of people almost 10 venues. Get real. You don't think tony lives offs the money fr Fest all year on a yacht do you?

I think the consensus is this, the majority of people think this is lame, but they also think it’s wrong that I dare be critical of it.

I don't think it's wrong to criticize it at all. I actually back an open honest discussion. Yeah sucks to get cut, but if it keeps the Fest going I'm for it. I personally don't think many Fest veterans will actually buy this. How offten does a line CEO in to play? 2-3 bands during the weekend? Not worth a hundred bucks. So say all 100 people want to go see latterman? Soo 100 other people miss out? Maybe but there are other bands playing. It's not like they per sold it.

Dude, come on.

All's I said was that I personally can't hate on it too much without feeling hypicritical, even though to the extent that I care, (which is honestly not a whole lot because my tastes in music are such that it has very little likelihood of impacting my weekend at all) I do think that it's a bad idea and will lead to problems. Assuming anyone is even buying these things in the first place.

I'm guessing the problem is just that sales are down this year. I imagine that the margins, whatever they may be, remain about the same from year to year, but that costs keep creeping up.

The thing about sales is, it probably has more to do with people not being able to afford to travel than anything else. And Florida's economy is in such a shitty state that 80-100 bucks is already a fuckton of money for a lot of people, so raising the price even more is just going to further chill local sales. Fair or not, $150 would be prohibitively expensive for a lot of people earning southeast US wages.

Don't get me wrong bignrich I think the idea is a stinker but Tony & the whole Fest crew have so much credit in the bank this dosent even touch the sides. When a bunch of people work there asses off all year for hardly any financial recompence (listen to Tony's interview on the Rocket Fuel podcast, he saved loads of money from waiting jobs so he could work full time on Fest) to give us a great weekend, the least we can do is cut them some slack if they introduce something we don't agree with.

Instead of buying a Q-jump pass I will be buying 50 more PBR! What pre-FEST you at bignrich? There is one with your name on

I'll go ahead and chime in here about the VIP stuff. The passes go on sale tomorrow. Personally, I'm not a fan of the idea but Tony explained to me that it's really the only way to make ends meet this year. Costs to put this thing on grow every year, bands needs money (some a lot of money), bands need flights, staffs at the venues need money, renting equipment is expensive plus the endless time he and a few others have to sacrifice to make sure everything goes off with as few problems as possible. Last year we sold out in a matter of days. This year tickets have been on sale for months and there are still a bunch left. It's hard to predict what the temperature of the sales are going to be like when you're planning out a budget.

Like I said, I really don't like the idea of special skip-line passes, it's kind of a slippery slope. But, I think it's the best idea Mr. Weinbender could come up with to make up for the Fests' financial issues this year. Hope nobody gets too fouled by the situation. We're doing our best.

I think most people knew this was the reason, hopefully this will sort the problem, if not a donations bucket at registration would do it!

Thanks again for all your hard work...

Better yet a donation bucket after everyone is wasted... Oh yeah line beers. Good idea mr. Barnes. Yeah double up again on the thanks, you guys are my heroes

Fuck it. I'm buying one. I honestly doubt I'll use it. I have the cash and I'm happy to help out where I can.

The thought of Fest going bust (kinda like HoH Fest) is a very shitty thought.

I've been offline for a few days so only just found out about this. Personally I have no problem with Fest trying to get some more cash in but I still think this is a terrible idea. Setting up a private show for anyone that donates or anything like that could have pulled in some extra bucks but giving a select group of richer people the option to jump the line seems to go against everything that makes Fest stand so far apart from any other festival.

I could afford to buy a VIP pass and think it would be worth every penny in terms of the extra bands I might be able to fit in to my schedule but there's no way in hell I'm gonna do it!

I personally can't do this because I don't have the extra cash laying around, but honestly I don't think its as bad as everyone seems to think it is. Press and photopasses also give you skip the line privileges, so a few random fest-goers being able to do this too isn't too much of a stretch either, at least I don't think.

That being said, since I financially can't do this, I am willing to put in some donation money to somebody when I get down there.