More Thoughts on Y-Prog's Untimely Demise

Like too many of its predecessors Y-Prog has fallen by the wayside, scaled down to a handfull of shows on the Friday and Sunday night thanks to the generosity of the bands scheduled to play those nights. Saturday night is still a question mark, but some band or other is bound to fill up that night also.
 
Kris Hudson-Lee, Y-Prog's promoter, has issued a statement that you can read on the Northern England Art Rock Society website. Suffice to say that the relevant part of the statement is one that has come up too often:

Y-Prog was cancelled because, whilst initial ticket sales looked good, we saw a virtual stop on the sales. We tried all we could, even paying rather a lot of money to advertise in a rather popular magazine (inside back cover, two issues) but it was not to be. We can't run a festival if there aren't enough people there.

It seems that the prog pie is just sliced too thin these days and is beginning to break up

 
 

It's a refrain we've heard too many times before. The list of prog festivals that perished before they were born, or that died a slow death, is getting too long: FarFest, Fused, 3RP, FMPM, Ohio Prog, ProgFarm, ProgSol, ProgWest, Tiana Prog, Winter's End, NEARfest, and many more.

 

Is the prog pie sliced too thin? Let's not forget that Prog is still a niche market, and while we like to bost about the incredible bands we listen to, too few people know about prog, innundated as they are to (Name of Country) Idol, or (Name of Country)'s Got Talent, or the Voice.

 

The few remaining festival need our full support if we want to continue hearing the music that fills our lives. If prog is to survive we must purchase the albums, purchase the tickets, and encourage the bands we love. If we don't we will only have ourselves to blame when the next festival closes its doors for good.