As a performer, if I asked a venue/festival that hadn't hired us why, I was usually told that we didn't fit in to their thematic vision for the year. There are several festivals that did hire us other years, when we did fit what they were trying to do. When I was on a concert committee, we had to go through a lot of submissions from performers that hadn't bothered to find out what kind of venue or booking policy we had. For some of those performers, we told them what they did wasn't what we booked. I also had to tell some of my best friends that their demo tapes were voted down by the rest of the committee and that we couldn't hire them. I've always appreciated, as a performer, knowing one way or the other. No, is not the worst answer to get.