If not enough people came, it means the entire thing is not worth doing because the scene is too small, or you have to change something structurally, which can mean one of several things (or a combination):

- Change the location to a place where more people come

- Fundamentally change the way you marketed to get butts in seats; it may be a symptom that what you did doesn't work, as tough as it is to face that (target your dollars, whether it's online, radio, print, and other media)

- Change the revenue model. If you have a worldwide audience and your issue is that you cant get them in one place, do you charge access to a streaming video of the event? You make it cheap so people don't think twice about buying it. Or if streaming is too technologically complex, you record and make an easy download or stream, but it has to be soon after, a day or two so the excitement is still there. Or I dont know, maybe people get the video download for free if the join MRX, whatever.


Hell, maybe it's a web event with the bands playing, answering fan questions, interviews, prize giveaways, shit like that....low cost, no air fare, etc, and your pool of attendees grows exponentially. And thats what the event becomes. Hell, you can even give a sliver of it to charity to get people to want to do it - if you hit x dollars, you give y percent to Save the Starving Children or what have you. If there's a charity that is dear to x artist's heart you make that deal with them and publicize it. More artists will want to participate because they dont have to fly anywhere, and thats what MR FEST is. Sure,you miss out on the crowd interaction, but dont you have to be practical? You can do funny things for site regulars, like have a video of Coco doing some silly shit or whatever. Auctions of cool memorabilia. Maybe some artists will do a cool acoustic version of something or other.

I was reading the other day how famous comedians like Louis CK and others (which of course have much, much broader exposure) sell their live shows now on their website for $5 and make millions of dollars directly. No HBO, no middleman. Sure, in your case, youre talking a slightly higher price and lower volume, and not millions of dollars. And the technology & logistics behind it would be interesting to crack.

- Change the venue. Maybe more casual, or smaller, or outdoors in a park somewhere (with the right permits).

- Strategically pick the date & location based on aggregators. I mean, go where there are already a fuckton of other rock fans congregating. Is there a convention or anything that is related to rock and roll that you can exploit, either to market or to make it easy for those people to attend your thing?

- Maybe the US is a bad idea and you should shift to Europe, where travel is (relatively) easier. The US never bet on a good mass transportation system, so it's a pain to go anywhere. You dont want to be anywhere near Firefest and those guys date-wise.