Most promoters put on a festival in their own community, designing the event around what works locally. A few promoters, like Charles Attal Presents, look for locations which will accommodate what they do best. Cities like San Francisco and Chicago have built-in audiences, while others, like Pinedale and Helena are The Big Event in a small community. Different strokes, but important distinctions. Successful promoters know their areas and their audiences, and what's going to work there, not blindly emulate what works elsewhere.

The Pinedale Blues Festival takes place in the least populated part of the least populated state in the nation, in a town without a stoplight, so the key is finding headliners who will draw for hundreds of miles. The San Francisco Bay area, on the other hand, has lots of music venues and a million things for people to do.

Huston Powell, Charles Attal's Talent Buyer, considers Austin's Zilker and Chicago's Grant Parks signature spaces, as important as the bands. His company looks all over North America for locations: the right site at the right time of year, where "you're not right on top of one another." Similarly, Lang books worldwide. He's done a festival in France, is contemplating another event in Europe, and one in Bali at least two years out. His M.O. is to decide if everything is feasible, secure permits, and, ideally, take a year to organize it.

Festivals can have a huge economic impact, even in large metropolitan areas. You can't find a motel room within a 25 or 30-mile radius of Rockland, Maine during the North Atlantic Blues Festival; when a family wasn't coming back the next year, their motel held a lottery for the reservation. The festival actually closes off U.S. Route 1 on a July Saturday night, with bands on the highway. Director Paul Benjamin said "We definitely bring in millions to the local economy."

In New Orleans, the city and the state depend heavily on Jazzfest and Mardi Gras revenues. Pocono Blues Fest, in August, is the biggest tourist weekend of the year in mountains which have been winter resorts for 60 years.

The City of Chicago reaps close to $20 million from Bluesfest and $40 million from Lollapalooza, which is paid admission; Austin realizes some $27 million from Austin City Limits.

Once a large sponsor is on board, it's much easier to convince others, but the first challenge is getting in front of the decision makers. Once sponsorship is a mature program, like any sales effort, it becomes an ongoing project to go back to previous sponsors and cultivate new ones.

Some sponsors take two or three years to develop and if lost, it can really hurt. Economies change, companies are bought out, decision makers change, or die. No one knows that better than San Francisco's Tom Mazzolini; when the Silicon Valley bubble burst, it reverberated throughout his community. Some sponsors contribute cash, some advertising, some pay outright for certain acts. The private sector picks up 65-70% of Chicago Blues Fest's costs and their highest profile artist, Bonnie Raitt, was paid by a sponsor. Charles Attal has three people in the sponsor division, and the company walks a fine line in order not to dilute the festival's brand name. Sponsorship accounts for roughly 25% of revenues, and although effort is made to find room for all sponsors, some come on aggressively so CAP actively avoids oversaturation "like NASCAR."

Sponsorship can be a double-edged sword. After the oil boom in Wyoming, oilmen helped only on condition that Pinedale book an act they had heard of; Pinedale's major hands-off patron, Gayle Kinnison, died unexpectedly this winter. In some cases "sponsors" are de facto investors: they want to get their money back, and a profit if the festival makes a lot of money.

While many promoters believe the most critical element is sponsorship, two private festivals, Camp Jam and Pocono, notably have no big backers or outside sponsors, and they are both in the black.