It's the best group of interest we've had yet. We are so impressed we decided to put them on the main stage for an hour before the rest of the schedule gets started. They deserve the exposure.

Our challenge is to get someone who has never been to the festival to buy a ticket for a show that they haven't been to before, artists that they don't know. But that's our reputation now. People hadn't heard of Todd Snider before we brought him here and the people who keep coming expect that. They will find something new that they loved by the time the weekend is over.

Our goal is to have top- notch performers with top- notch music, not here-today- gone-tomorrow musicians. How long can we take the repetition of what's popular right now? What makes great music possible is the songs.