"I am saying that if ANYONE else is making money from these festivals, in ANY way, then that is wholly wrong."

Why are you comparing apples to oranges? Maybe you should walk a few miles in their moccasins before judging them (the festival sponsors) so harshly. Have you ever worked on a festival committee of any kind? It really doesn't sound like you have, based on my own experience on more than one side of the issue... organizer, performer (both paid & volunteer) and vendor (representing our traditional music group & using our not for profit status to get out of paying a space fee to set up our table & sell raffle tickets to support our own annual festival).

Important point - festival vendors include organizations that are trying to raise money, not just commerical folks who have food or items to sell.

And if you are offended that food & drink vendors charge money... so did the company that sold them the food items and the government that issued whatever permits required to sell foodor drink. Vendors are an attraction that tends to not just bring in attendees, but keep them there - and usually pay a fee to be allowed to set up.

There are plenty of real abuses out there in the music world to complain about, why not choose your battles more wisely instead of going ballistic on a situation that you seem to not know very much about? Or did one of the volunteer performers personnaly come to you with their compalints?