Every year during the Frankfurt MusikMesse, they do a thing called the "Arranger Party" on the last Sunday of the show. They hire one of the large function rooms and turn it into a modest mini-theatre with a small stage and seating for around 500 people.

Each arranger keyboard manufacturer sends their top demonstrator from the show to demonstrate the company's flagship instrument for about 15 minutes. There are usually about 8 manufacturers represented and the whole event takes 2 -3 hours. The Arranger party has been running for about four years now and has become a pretty popular event.

My point is that it wouldn’t be very hard to set up something similar here, allow the artists a little more time (say, an hour each) and stretch the event out to fill a weekend. I believe that most of the major manufacturers would be willing to provide one artist and a rep for a weekend to ensure that their products are seen in the best light. The event organizer would only need to hire a function room in a hotel, and some PA equipment. This could be financed by a reasonable admission fee for attendees or split between supporting manufacturers. Attendees would be responsible for their own accommodation and participating manufacturers would be at liberty to hire additional function rooms in the same hotel if they wanted to provide a hands-on demo area for attendees (which I believe many would elect to do).

I just wanted to throw the thought out there. This could be a kind of self sufficient festival where the financial investment on the part of the organizer would be fairly small while the size and scope of the festival would be limited only by the intentions of the manufacturers and the number of attendees.

If anyone out there wants to take this to the next step, let me know.

Chris