Damn, I love you guys (and I haven’t even met Jeff (HuckinFappy) yet.) :wave
Dancinfingers, aaronacp15, et al, I hope some of these posts have helped illuminate and provided some enlightenment. Please realize that words inevitably fall short. John and Jeff post some eloquent examples, then Tom blows me away with. “It’s still the summer of love for us old hippies…” I owe you another beer for making my eyes water, you old hippie. :cheers
Let’s get some parameters straight, ok? If any of us could wave a magic wand and make TP 2 or 3 or 7 times bigger, we’d do it in a heartbeat. I know it can appear exclusionary, but it’s not intended that way, it’s a matter of physical limitations forming a constraint.
The fest is a precarious balance of desire and community, (friendly) competition and egalitarianism.
You know the types of people that renew your faith in humanity? Well, in my (limited) experience, TP contains an abundance of these, an inverse proportion typically found in our society at large. They are the rule there, rather than the exception. You want to see these folks there, year after year. They are the shining lights that renew your spirit. Some refer to them as family, I am proud to call many of them friends. (It’s not all sunshine and roses and there are a-#0les, but they’re vastly outnumbered and you forget those quickly.) We want it all though, old friends and new. We also know that the vast majority of fest-goers are wonderful people too, would fit right in and contribute to the great experience. Looking to keep old friends in the loop and to keep the the events, traditions and spirit of TP alive from festival to festival is simply that, it isn’t based on a desire to keep new friends out (although I know it may come across that way at times.) This is where we hit the constraint thing. To a large extent, we’ll leave it to the lottery to determine the mix.
Camps aren’t just camps, they’re comprised of people. It’s those people that, together, create another facet that amplifies the musical experience beyond the sum of the parts, sometimes to a transcendent experience.
I don’t perceive earlier posts in the thread as complaining. Folks are just concerned with the implications of the change of WF to lottery. Many understandably prefer Warner Field and this is a change to the virtual guarantee of getting tix online in December. To those that prefer Town Park, WF has been somewhat of a safety valve. Not too long ago, tickets for Warner would be available for weeks. Last year it was measured in minutes and traffic hosed up the server. This an an inevitable change that has been coming, and it’s normal to be concerned about it, but it’s no different from when TP went to lottery. It is just a little shocking to think about how far the festival has come in terms of popularity and ticket (any ticket) demand.
Ahhh, constraints and the burdens of success… 
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