I'm afraid that as with all major events like this, the all-controlling factor is money and if a rock/pop/tribute band will get bums on seats as it were, then the organisers will go for them, regardless of genre, suitability or taste.

Their thinking is on the lines of 'people will pay $XXX to see these people, they'll come early and pay us $XX to park. There is always the hope that some people might be interested enough to find out more about what is going on around them, but I'm afraid that in the majority of these things, it is the mass that will be catered for, not the minority. The mass will degenerate to the lowest common denominator and regretably for the rest of humanity, the lowest common denominator in that sort of mass is usually a couple of steps short of 'moron'.

Many a good locally theme based festival has been ripped apart by the 'more people = more money' ethos, by organisers who can see only currency.

And just to prove a point - remember all the fuss a few years back when they started to build the Olympic park in east London? All the promises for 'local resources', how it would be to 'east London's benefit'? I can tell you now that according to a source within the Olympic Committee, the promised amount of jobs for local firms has not materialised and for the opening/closing ceremonies, not a single act or group booked so far, comes from the local area. In fact, those ceremonies are organised years in advance, by a company who have absolutely no contact with any local groups. For 2 years now, my local choir has been trying to get a spot, even commissioning a well known composer to write the piece specially. Last week we were told the line up has already been set. Getting an unknown, local group or act into any Olympic-based event is harder than getting into Fort Knox because even one of the biggest events in the world wants bums on seats and hard cash in the bank.

LTS