ROSfest 2022 This Weekend

[mozo-pg]

[bondegezou]

^ Thanks for the detailed review.

[Steve F.]

^^^^

Thank you for taking the time to write/post, Steve.

[Twelfth Earl of Mar]

What was attendance like?

[Firth]

Thanks Steve for the fairly comprehensive review. The festival was pretty amazing given that there still are international travel roadblocks and concerns. Some people expressed concern about testing positive for COVID and not being able to attend Cruise to the Edge because of the testing requirement, 72 hours ahead of departure. Not so much a fear of Omicron hospitalization.

[SteveSly]

What was attendance like?

It appeared to me to be less than any previous ROSfest I attended. They did have a pretty good crowd Friday and Saturday night as I got the feeling they had quite a few locals buying tickets for Belew / Harrison and Anderson. There was a whole row of people sitting in front of us Friday night that I never saw the rest of the weekend. The overall attendance appeared to be down however.

[Firth]

I sat in the middle 10 rows back, and as Steve indicated, different people around all 3 days. My mistake to not buy the Gold ticket when they went on sale, but I liked my seat.

One guy moved up from a close row to close to me, and he said the sound close up during the Belew/Harrison show was lacking volume. Noticed that the next day, speakers were installed on extreme left and right edges of the stage, that were not there Friday night. Talked to sound engineer, he said Belew/Harrison didn’t want those speakers taking up space. The stage was full of performers although not as many as the Rock Academy. Those speakers were functioning as monitors and sound full for the near stage area.

[SteveSly]

Good morning all. One thing that was a hot topic at both this past weekend’s ROSfest and the one I attended in 2019 was the advantages / disadvantages of Sarasota vs. Gettysburg regarding the festival. I was going to mention this in my review that I wrote the other day, but then decided that it deserves it’s own thread, so here goes for anyone interested and I would love to hear other thoughts on this subject.

First let me say that I started attending ROSfest after the demise of NEARfest so did not attend any of the early years and my only experiences have been Gettysburg & Sarasota. Let’s get started:

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION: Ok, of course this is the big one. Depending on where you live the move from Pennsylvania to Florida can be a deal breaker. It is well established by this point that the epicenter of prog in the U.S. is in the Northeast with the biggest fanbase located there. Because of this, a large chunk of the audience was within easy driving distance of the festival. The move to Florida has dissuaded at least some of this audience from attending. Regarding myself, I live in Michigan, so no matter where the festival was held it involved either hours and hours of driving or flying to be able to attend. Although geographically Gettysburg is closer to me than Florida, we have found that getting to Sarasota is both easier and cheaper. We have a discount airline Allegiant Air that has direct flights from Grand Rapids to Sarasota at a much cheaper rate than when I flew to either Harrisburg or Philly. Those Pennsylvania flights were never direct ones either. Allegiant, Frontier, Sun Country, and others all fly into Sarasota and many of those flights come from east coast cities, so might be something for people to investigate if they are thinking about attending in the future. So, for me I give Sarasota the win here as it is easier and cheaper for us to get there even from Michigan.

VENUE: I loved the Colonial Theater in Gettysburg. It was a great old historical theater. The Opera House in Sarasota is similar and another outstanding venue. The sound, sightlines, staff, restroom facilities, vendor space, stage, are all about the same and top notch. The one slight edge I give to the Opera House is the outdoor beer garden. Because there is so much down time between bands it is cool to have an outdoor gathering place where people can spend time together and socialize. The addition of having live music this year was a bonus too. Bottom line, if you take the beer garden out of the equation, this one is a tie as both venues were great. If you include the beer garden the Opera House has a slight edge for me.

RESTAURANTS / BARS: Sarasota wins this one all the way. Gettysburg had a fair number of restaurants / bars but trying to get into them could be a chore as they were always busy. Often if you wanted to eat somewhere during the dinner break, you either had to leave before a show was over or have someone stake out a table for you somewhere. Then it was often a rush to get seated, served, and checked out before the next show began. Sarasota has many more restaurants within walking distance and we never had to wait for a table at any of them. We always had a leisurely dinner with a few drinks and plenty of time to get back to the venue. Sarasota wins this hands down.

HOTELS: Gotta give this one to Sarasota as well. Gettysburg had very few hotels within walking distance. Sarasota has many. It is great to be able to walk 5 minutes (or less) to the venue. Be able to walk back and forth between bands if needed and walk back at the end of the night, especially if you have had a few beers. The Sarasota hotels also all have nice bars and gathering places for people to socialize. The Sarasota hotels all have nice pool areas too, which did not really come into play in Gettysburg with the cooler weather. Prices in Sarasota might be a bit higher, but Gettysburg wasn’t cheap either. Sarasota for the win here.

THE TOWN: I will be the first to admit that Gettysburg was a cool town. Over the years we did all the historical stuff and always totally enjoyed our stay there. Sarasota is a cool town as well, but in a different way. It has much more of a “city” feel, but nothing was ever super busy. One thing that has been added since 2019 is Sarasota now has a free trolley service that you can jump on and go to various places in town, St. Armand’s Circle, Lido Key & Lido Beach. We did it twice during our stay this time and it was great. I am going to give this one a tie since I loved both towns.

EASE OF GETTING AROUND: This will vary depending on your individual circumstances, but for us, flying to Gettysburg always included having to rent a car, since none of the airports were anywhere close. If we chose to drive from Michigan it would have been around a 14-hour drive. I did that once to NEARfest and said never again. So, anyway renting a car and often having to drive from where we were staying to the venue was a pain. Since we can get a cheap flight directly into Sarasota, we just took an Uber to the hotel (it was about $13 dollars one way) and just walked the rest of the weekend. The free trolley I mentioned previously takes you out to the beach which we took advantage of too. The winner here is Sarasota for me.

THE WEATHER: C’mon man! Sarasota all the way!

So, there you have it. I loved both cities and both venues, and this is all just my opinion of course. I would love to hear others thoughts on this subject, especially those that have been to both locations.

[Steve F.]

^ ^ ^ ^

This was also very interesting to read. A free trolley is a really nice bonus if you want to stay a couple of extra days before or after and go to the beach or whatever. Or if you want to attend the shows and your family / spouse / children do not.

[SteveSly]

Video from last weekend:

[SteveSly]

[SteveSly]

^ ^ ^ ^

This was also very interesting to read. A free trolley is a really nice bonus if you want to stay a couple of extra days before or after and go to the beach or whatever. Or if you want to attend the shows and your family / spouse / children do not.

Yes, it was really cool. We did not know anything about it until a hotel employee told us about it. Apparently it has only been in service a few months.

[gearHed289]

They did have a pretty good crowd Friday and Saturday night as I got the feeling they had quite a few locals buying tickets for Belew / Harrison and Anderson. There was a whole row of people sitting in front of us Friday night that I never saw the rest of the weekend.

This makes sense. I've got a couple of friends down there and I saw them posting pics from the Belew/Harrison set, with no specific mention of "ROSfest".

[Jayzee]

Here is a great article about this past years RosFest
https://rosfestpast.blogspot.com/202...tival.html?m=1

[mozo-pg]

^^^I'm not sure why you posted this slanderous rant! I thought it was going to read interesting reviews on the bands. I couldn't finish it.

[taliesin]

What the hell was that?

One post from a new member - presumably the author behind the anonymous blog?

[SteveSly]

Here is a great article about this past years RosFest
https://rosfestpast.blogspot.com/202...tival.html?m=1

Mmmm…….wow, somebody has an axe to grind.

[Firth]

Mmmm…….wow, somebody has an axe to grind.

I will wait to see what the plurality of opinion and knowledge is on this. It was surprising that George dropped out of ROSFest when he did. What turns me off about the rant, is political slant on it because George was a police officer. It smells of prejudice. George was a Marine and I talked with him at Progday that year he came down. He was an intense person.

[Steve F.]

Here is a great article about this past years RosFest
https://rosfestpast.blogspot.com/202...tival.html?m=1

This sure was a 100% hatchet job.

I don’t know anything about RosFest’s inner workings, but anyone - meaning George - who does something like this for well over a dozen years, is absolutely someone who truly cares. There just is not enough money in ANYTHING associated with this music to be anything else.

Imo.

[chalkpie]

"No need to ask who this is, I’m just someone who has nothing to lose (especially if Putin and Biden get lovey dovey)."

WTF is this shit?

[moecurlythanu]

There just is not enough money in ANYTHING associated with this music to be anything else.

Prog Truth Ch.1, V.1

[Steve F.]

^^^

Thank you

[taliesin]

There just is not enough money in ANYTHING associated with this music to be anything else.

Imo.

I dunno - I always picture you as Scrooge McDuck diving into your pool of money from the massive selling albums you release.

[SteveSly]

This sure was a 100% hatchet job.

I don’t know anything about RosFest’s inner workings, but anyone - meaning George - who does something like this for well over a dozen years, is absolutely someone who truly cares. There just is not enough money in ANYTHING associated with this music to be anything else.

Imo.

As you state, no one makes money from prog festivals with the possible exception of CTTE, and no one would stay in this game for more than a decade without an actual love of the genre. I don’t claim to know George well. I know he has his detractors, but all my interactions with him have been positive. The fact that the author of this diatribe refuses to attach their name to it, speaks volumes. If whoever wrote this ever exposes who they are, maybe more credibility could be attached to it, but until that time this appears to be random rant from a likely former employee with a grudge.

[Firth]

As you state, no one makes money from prog festivals with the possible exception of CTTE, and no one would stay in this game for more than a decade without an actual love of the genre. I don’t claim to know George well. I know he has his detractors, but all my interactions with him have been positive. The fact that the author of this diatribe refuses to attach their name to it, speaks volumes. If whoever wrote this ever exposes who they are, maybe more credibility could be attached to it, but until that time this appears to be random rant from a likely former employee with a grudge.

If I was the writer (and certainly I am not), I would not attach my name to it, for in this time one could easily become a martyr for sharing unpopular truth. However, I don’t care if anybody becomes a billionaire, if they support this subculture. I Believe there are some affluent people helping, and this would be great. The demonization of affluence is one of the greatest limiting factors to progressive and non-mainstream music.