Santana $200,000, Bonnie Raitt, $100,000, we couldn't get her agent to blink." Similarly, Lady Luck Casino once said they would pay for five acts in Arkansas, whatever they cost. Neither Eric Clapton nor B.B. King would play.

Arkansas claims to have the lowest entertainment budget of any major festival. "Our entire budget is $100,000 for four days, five stages." Cloeren is adamant about paying everybody fairly "from the first act to the last. We're not going to pay a blues rock headliner and there's no money left for the other acts." Ted Boomer uses economy of scale and connections. "When we call up a James Cotton, we string together our three dates and call friends in Ottawa and the Folk Festival and try to work together so the tour is bigger for the artist. The artists can make more money and have great routing, especially for British bands whose airfares get amortized over several shows."

Fly-ins can be trouble if they miss a plane anywhere. Benjamin makes sure his first three or four bands are in the house the night before, knowing there may be bad weather someplace else, and in any case, they won't be fresh after a flight and a two or three hour drive to the gig.

There can be rider problems involving what artists want on the backline, or the buffet. Rolling with the punches means having all the equipment they might want, even if they swear they're bringing their own, and then still dealing with: "We don't drink that kind of water." Water is water, but who's gonna tell a headliner that 15 minutes before the show?

One artist complained about the soft drinks, the food, his room, his slot, playing in the afternoon ("I don't even get up before…"), other players' instruments ("That's not a harp, that's a plastic comb"), the 10% cut into his CD sales, his backup band….he wasn't happy with anything. Leaving town, he made a final call: "Why the hell did you put the airport so far away?" Most promoters try hard not to hire prima donnas, but sometimes you have to make the best of it.

You never know how high maintenance the headliner is going to be, but again, savvy promoters take precautions. Boomer wasn't sure what to expect from Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, and the Rolling Stones alumnus. Boomer brought in Johnnie Johnson (Chuck Berry's pianist), who's played with Muddy Waters and everybody, and put him up right before the Rhythm Kings, who minded their Ps and Qs. "Blues artists never forget where they came from or who gave them the building blocks, and neither does country. When Willie Nelson's in the house, even if you're worth a billion, there's still that respect. With a legend on the bill, the headliners always bring up the old guy, the guy who gave them the gift of their careers," said Boomer. "Everyone has a smile on their face and it sets the mood."

Promoters usually have more issues with management than with artists. Pillow tries to go directly to the artist, "but sometimes you have to go through some snake-oil salesmen." Some agencies insist their artist close the show, but the headliner usually sells the fewest CDs because by the time they're done, cool down and come over to sign CDs, people have left.

The merchandising aspect cannot be understated, since many bands realize as much on their merchandise as they do performing. With overall CD sales down, especially in record stores, performers have to go out on the road and sell their own. That's why Pocono wants bands to have a current product, because without a relevant CD, sales will be low. When Benjamin first brought Slick Ballinger to Maine as a virtual unknown, Ballinger ran out of the 400 CDs he brought. A few festivals make no money on CD sales, but most take a cut of the performer's sales for selling them. At Pocono, the vendor takes 10%, the festival takes 10%, and the artist gets 80% of CD sales—relatively standard—but a few festivals charge up to 40%. Waterloo Records at ACL and Virgin at Lollapalooza set up full record stores on site, with all the band's CDs. Bands get 90%, and the store and CAP split up the 10%. Chicago Blues Fest cuts each deal differently, and has used everybody from the Jazz Record Mart to Best Buy to sell CDs.