Attendance?

[Spiderpact]

This was my first year attending PPUSA. I'm not familiar with the venue or what full capacity/ticket sales looked like. Glenn, would you mind telling us how many tickets were sold? From my perspective the Showcase was sparse in attendance compared to Friday and Saturdays shows, but it seemed like the actual PPUSA event was pretty well a full house. Any of you regulars have a guess as to the numbers based on what you saw?

 

[mëtålspëd]

The only answer I can give is... not enough.

 

[templeofmax]

To me it almost seemed a full house, especially Saturday night while Pagans Mind was playing. However, I don't think it was sold out, maybe 700 people or so? the showcase had around 500 I would guess!!!! Saigon Kick rockssssss.........Love is on the Way is marvelous!!!!!

 

[mitchgx]

To me it almost seemed a full house, especially Saturday night while Pagans Mind was playing. However, I don't think it was sold out, maybe 700 people or so? the showcase had around 500 I would guess!!!! Saigon Kick rockssssss.........Love is on the Way is marvelous!!!!!

I thought the venue's capacity was 1,400, and that Glenn opens up 1,200 tickets for the event (a nice move on his part that helps keep things from being ridiculously packed); don't quote me on that, it's just my recollection. Since it did seem relatively full, my guess would be that he ultimately sold around 1,100 tickets.

Maybe Glenn can award some VIP passes to the person that guesses closest.

 

[Jibrille]

He sells 800 regular tickets on top of the Gold badges. I would guess there was ~700 of those sold Fri/Sat.
I did notice a few people buying single day tickets each time I first arrived at the venue.

 

[BlackRoseMetalHeart]

I thought the venue's capacity was 1,400, and that Glenn opens up 1,200 tickets for the event (a nice move on his part that helps keep things from being ridiculously packed); don't quote me on that, it's just my recollection. Since it did seem relatively full, my guess would be that he ultimately sold around 1,100 tickets.

That might be venue capacity, but I don't think that's exactly how many tickets he sells. I want to say that I heard somewhere before 800 to the public, 100-200 Gold Badges, and then you want to have some space to factor for about 300-400 VIPs/sponsors, band members, crew members, and staff.

I would guess there were probably about 650 or 700 tickets out of the 800 sold to the public each day.

Not bad considering the economy, and the fact that every band, promoter, venue, festival, etc. in the US that I've spoken to this year have been loosing their asses. But when you look at the history of ProgPower and it's ticket sales, it's probably still a bit of a blow for Glenn, although admittedly he has fared better than others in the market this year. Props to him for continuing to do what he's doing and busting his ass to bring the US lots of great metal! All factors considered, this year's turnout was pretty darn good.

 

[Prog_Please]

I was curious about this as well. I remember the number 800, but I thought that included gold badges too (I'm probably wrong). It did look pretty packed during the PM set.

 

[DrZ304]

The crowd during Pagan's Mind did seem really tight. There wasn't a lot of room on the floor and the seats were pretty full as well. Considering the 1,100 capacity of Center Stage (I got the number from an event site...could be wrong), I would venture a guess at 700 - 900 at it's fullest.

 

[Pellaz]

The crowd during Pagan's Mind did seem really tight. There wasn't a lot of room on the floor and the seats were pretty full as well. Considering the 1,100 capacity of Center Stage (I got the number from an event site...could be wrong), I would venture a guess at 700 - 900 at it's fullest.

I think I heard the official capacity was 1,169, from Tim, who helped me hook Glenn up with the venue management back in 2000.

It WAS quite packed in there for Pagan's Mind...so packed on the floor that I decided not to try and cut through from the backstage doors and ended up watching much of their show from the video editing suite backstage...which was really nifty. (The guy invited me inside to watch, which was cool.) Got to hear the mix from the soundboard, and it sounded quite good. Always cool to see a band 'bring it' live.