Festivals are good for musicians. Acts earn more money on a festival stage, play one 60-minute set in front of thousands, and sell a ton of CDs. It's a gig like New Year's Eve: where a band might get $500 for a club night, at a festival, they get $2,000. Without festivals, frankly, some bands couldn't make it. (See Kickin' in Your Stall.)

The exposure is also an opportunity for musicians. Talent bookers and other festival promoters scout at festivals knowing it's a great way to see a significant number of bands in two or three days. The band is also exposed to many more potential fans. Ten Years After played to 5,000 before the Woodstock concert and film, but post Woodstock played to 30,000. On the flip side, some musicians won't play a blues or country festival because they feel it will pigeonhole them.

Last, promoters make the bands feel welcome. "We have a full open bar and most unbelievable hospitality you've ever seen for the artists," said Dean, and in fact hospitality is a big expense item for all festivals. When check-in isn't until noon or 1 PM, Benjamin books an extra night for the bands playing at noon, so their room is ready. In Pinedale, Blues Traveler and their roadies were shuttled back and forth to Jackson Hole because there was no room service in tiny Pinedale.

Ticketing is more than "How much do we charge?" ACL, which sold out in a month, offers only a three-day package for 70% of the sale time. Only in June do they offer single-day tickets, when the scheduling grid is released. Benjamin stops selling advance tickets on the Monday before the event, because that's when the weather forecast comes out. ACL, which consciously tries to keep ticket prices reasonable, is funded 65% by ticket sales, and 25% by sponsorship, with merchandise and a small number of VIP plans making up the other 10%.

Groundwork begins early. For a major foreign event like Bali, Lang goes there at least two years before to locate the site, and get the ball rolling, "Then I find the person who I'm going to leave there," before turning it over to the local production people. He's back and forth over 18 months, and stays the last two weeks before the event. Most domestic festivals require a year.

Boomer starts in September, books into November, and goes into overdrive around April, with posters, tickets and on-site sales. Boomer's festivals take some three days to set up, four days of festival and about a day and a half to tear down, so he's on site over eight 15-hour days. He usually takes two weeks off , then starts again. Benjamin's stage company brings in hydraulic stages in a tractor trailer truck. Ninety minutes later it's ready to go. The backline guy brings in a back-up of everything in case something breaks down.

Creating an experience is a delicate, crucial job. The environment, the services, the way that security deals with the festivalgoers and of course the site itself, all create a vibe critical to success. Lang points out that there's a crowd psychology, and how easy it is to send people off in the wrong direction. "You have to be very careful; you can set the wrong tone."

There's an art to bringing in vendors, which everyone agrees are an integral part of the festival's vibe. Quality of merchandise and pricing— whether food or clothing—rank high as criteria; other factors include reliability and a proven track record. Vendors usually have to submit "menus" so nobody's selling the same corn dog or kite.

Economically, vendors don't necessarily contribute substantially to a paid festival. "All the vendors put together might buy one decent entertainer," said Gustafson. Most festivals charge a fl at fee for a spot, right down to the foot so there's no wasted space, but some—mostly free festivals like Chicago and Arkansas— charge a percentage of sales (usually monitored by some sort of scrip), which effectively puts vendors in partnership with the festival. Uniquely, Dean's arrangement is that every vendor buys a ticket (at $75) for each person who works the booth.

With Chicago's scrip system, vendors pay a sponsorship fee and 15% of sales, though in some cases the festival's cut runs 30%, which makes fair pricing difficult for the vendor. Lang notes: "If people are going to spend a lot of time with you, pricing has to be reasonable. In '99 it was ridiculous; we had $4 bottles of water." For clothing, his festivals charge by the booth, but there's a house fee for vending CDs, 25%-30%. The bar operations at ACL and Lollapalooza are outsourced in a venue-sharing deal.